Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church

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Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church

4.31 of 5 stars 4.31 · rating details · 3,612 ratings · 341 reviews

For years Christians have been asking, "If you died tonight, do you know where you would go?" It turns out that many believers have been giving the wrong answer. It is not heaven.

Award-winning author N. T. Wright outlines the present confusion about a Christian's future hope and shows how it is deeply intertwined with how we live today. Wright, who is one of today's premie...more

Hardcover, 332 pages

Published February 5th 2008 by HarperOne (first published May 30th 2007)

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Jan 28, 2009 Skylar Burris rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: christianity

Would you be surprised if someone said that Christianity does not teach that the soul goes to heaven when a Christian dies? In "Surprised By Hope," N.T. Wright tries to set non-Christians, but especially uninformed Christians, straight about what orthodox Christianity really teaches about life after death (or, more accurately, "life after life after death.")

The modern popular notions of heaven, the soul, and the "after life" often shared by Christians and non-Christians alike do not find their...more

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Jan 13, 2012 Nick rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: own, theology

When I read Evil and the Justice of God, I had a lot of questions on how Wright arrived at some of his beliefs. Many of those questions were answered in this helpful book. Wright takes a look at the Biblical evidence for the after-life (or as he puts it "life after life after death"), revealing that many popular--even in the church--beliefs are not, in fact, Biblical. Instead, he presents the Biblical evidence and pushes forward into its implications for today and the future. While I'm not quit...more

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Jan 12, 2009 Douglas Wilson rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: theology, personal-development

Most of this book was superb, and parts were atrocious.

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Nov 14, 2008 Jonathan rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone interested in questions of life and death

Recommended to Jonathan by: Christianity Today

Shelves: theology

Surprised by Hope deals with two questions: What does the ultimate future look like? And how should we live in the present in light of that future?

Personally, I wasn’t that “surprised” about Wright’s description of the future because it meshes well with my own views. It would come as more of a surprise to someone who holds to the Premillenial/Pretribulation eschatology of dispensationalists like Tim LaHaye (who made the popular “Left Behind” movies).

While Wright addresses all the future issues o...more

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Jul 10, 2008 Melinda added it

Uh, like WOW. If you're not into theology because you think it will be dry and boring, try NT Wright. Not that it isn't a bit of a challenge, but with some concentration, you will be richly rewarded. He opened up things I have believed in and about all my life, yet put such a fresh perspective on it for me. Changed my perception on many things. I need to follow this up with a discussion group - to help get it more into my living, breathing, everyday life, and to add the dimension of acting on it...more

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Nov 20, 2008 Jeff rated it 5 of 5 stars

I recently finished reading Lionel Basney's little book, An Earth-Careful Way of Life: Christian Stewardship and the Environmental Crisis, and I moved immediately to N.T. Wright's Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church. I love how the two connect. Wright's reason for writing Surprised by Hope is to counter ages-old misconceptions about what kind of a "place" heaven is. With a host of other observers, Wright observes that the less your idea of heaven...more I recently finished reading Lionel Basney's little book, An Earth-Careful Way of Life: Christian Stewardship and the Environmental Crisis, and I moved immediately to N.T. Wright's Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church. I love how the two connect. Wright's reason for writing Surprised by Hope is to counter ages-old misconceptions about what kind of a "place" heaven is. With a host of other observers, Wright observes that the less your idea of heaven connects with earth, the less you are likely to care for the earth. Why bother, if its all going to burn, and besides, what really matters are our spirits, right? Wrong, and shockingly so.

Basney offers a hopeful little commentary on the relationship between nature and culture that defies easy categorization. He covers a lot of important ground, explaining why our connection to the earth, not vaguely but in actually touching dirt in the growing of productive gardens, enables us to a fuller humanness. He has all kinds of potential to sound off prophetically about the wasteful ways most American Christians consume in blissful and self-centered ignorance. But for the most part, he contains his cynicism and stays hopeful. Hopeful for a world that turns upside down, mostly through local communities and their growing connections to earth. He also avoids any hint of pantheistic earth-worship that worries many Christians about their friends who are "into the environment."

Wright’s contribution to the conversation is primarily in reminding us that the weight of scripture points to a future in which earth and heaven are reunited. He spends quite a bit of energy countering the popular notion that heaven consists of an existence that is ethereal, or non-material, drawing on C.S. Lewis’s description of heaven as a place where our bodies are actually “more solid, more real” than they were on earth. Again, if this is so, and if this earth will be transformed rather than burned up, then Basney is right to encourage us to get to work on this transformation of the earth.

If you’ve paid attention to some of the work that Calvin students and faculty have been up to over the past few years, you will recognize in these projects (rain gardens, native plantings, invasive species reduction efforts, LEED certification programs, and re-forestation projects to name a few) you will recognize the influence of contemporary prophets like Lionel Basney and N.T. Wright.
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May 20, 2013 Susan rated it 2 of 5 stars

"Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church" by N. T. Wright, who is a bishop in the Church of England -- I read this book because I'd seen it recommended by a commenter online. It is supposed to answer the age-old question of "what happens when you die?"

Well. This is a very scholarly book, one of those where you'll read a page, only to realize that you've been spacing out and not paying attention and will have to read it again. At least, that's what ha...more

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Dec 10, 2012 Danny Yang rated it 4 of 5 stars

"The power of the gospel lies not in the offer of a new spirituality or religious experience, not in the threat of hellfire (certainly not in the threat of being “left behind”), which can be removed if only the hearer checks this box, says this prayer, raises a hand, or whatever, but in the powerful announcement that God is God, that Jesus is Lord, that the powers of evil have been defeated, that God’s new world has begun. This announcement, stated as a fact about the way the world is rather tha...more

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Dec 09, 2012 Bryon rated it 5 of 5 stars

I have a new favorite author/theologian in N.T. Wright, author of Surprised by Hope. He knows how to communicate lofty, theological concepts in a way that both makes sense and engages the reader to think. So much of what we think about theology is tainted by our church and political.

The mistake that many are making these days is they are re-INVENTING and re-DEFINING theology. Some people are taking the party's theological line without thinking about it at all. Re-THINKING is absolutely healthy...more

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Oct 09, 2012 Martin rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: christian-ethics, eschatology, christian-hope

For many it seems as if the world has lost its meaning. For some, human beings are seen as little more than small cogs in a large machine, propelled forward by the forces of evolution. For others, humans are the ultimate threat to a planet in crises. For others, it is a temporarily place where one only passes through towards a better place. Neither of these ideas leaves a sense of hope that transforms how human beings think and act in the current world. Christianity, at least the variety that is...more

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Aug 30, 2012 Ryan rated it 3 of 5 stars

Overall this was a good book. He was a bit slow to get going and stated a lot of basics. If you have thought thoroughly through the resurrection, new heavens and new earth paradigm over and against the greco-roman or gnostic view of the afterlife then this book will not be too much of a shocker for you. In short, our final destination is earth not heaven. Yet heaven cannot be viewed as apart from earth rather a complementary aspect of earth and as something which intersects with earth. The parad...more

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Mar 06, 2012 Zach rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book had a profound effect on me because it effectively shattered a lot of what I held most dear. Let me be upfront and say this was not a bad thing at all. For some reason when I read this book, I felt as though it were written for me at that exact moment. If you've ever had this experience I'm sure you understand what I mean. This book was pivotal in helping me have a better understanding of eschatology and the life of the world to come. It reminded me that the beautiful picture of "new h...more

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Feb 27, 2012 Tina rated it 4 of 5 stars

Although it was slow-going and dense, I really enjoyed this book by NT Wright. As the subtitle says, he has indeed caused me to "rethink heaven, the resurrection, and the mission of the church." To grossly summarize the book, Wright argues that the "new creation" started at the resurrection, not at the 2nd Coming. Christians need to start living as if the victory has already started (because it has), rather than wringing our hands, making excuses, and waiting for Christ's return to make things p...more Although it was slow-going and dense, I really enjoyed this book by NT Wright. As the subtitle says, he has indeed caused me to "rethink heaven, the resurrection, and the mission of the church." To grossly summarize the book, Wright argues that the "new creation" started at the resurrection, not at the 2nd Coming. Christians need to start living as if the victory has already started (because it has), rather than wringing our hands, making excuses, and waiting for Christ's return to make things perfect. Wright agrees that Christ's return will make things perfect, but that we are to begin preparations now. It brings a whole new meaning to "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." When I have prayed that line before it almost seemed like a "wish" rather than a real request. Wright's book has shown me the power of that prayer and what it should look like in the life of a Christian, i.e. fighting injustice, encouraging beauty, etc. His thought on heaven are refreshing and made a lot of sense to me. An unexpected treat was getting his non-American opinion. Being British, he sometimes referred to an "American" idea about something. I didn't realize how much I only get the American Christian perspective.

Here's a few highlights:

This one I put in our Christmas letter: "The power of the gospel lies not in the offer of a new spirituality or religious experience, not in the threat of hellfire... but in the powerful announcement that God is God, that Jesus is Lord, that the powers of evil have been defeated, that God's new world has begun."

And earlier in the book, "Israel believed... that the purposes of the creator God all cam down to this question: how is God going to rescue Israel? What the gospel of Jesus reveled, hoever, was that the purposes of God were reaching out to a different question: how is Godd going to rescue the through Israel and thereby rescue Israel itself as part of the process but not as the point of it all? Maybe what we are faced with in our own day is a similar challenge: to focus not on the question of which human begins God is going to take to heaven and how he is going to do it but on the question of how God is going to redeem and renew his creation through human beings and how he is going to rescue those humans themselves as part of the process but not as the point of it all."

Perhaps the greatest takeaway of the book for me was his explanation of I Thess. 4:16-17, which describes Jesus coming down from heaven and us meeting him in the air. Wright criticizes the American idea that we will meet Jesus in the air and then leave. He explains the context that the Thessalonians would have understood about a visiting dignitary. The whole city went out to meet the Roman official and walked him into the city to begin ruling it. This makes so much more sense to me that we will meet Jesus in the air and then bring him to earth to RULE.

I think of NT Wright as a modern C.S. Lewis. I appreciated his logic and approach.(less)

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Aug 20, 2011 Jason rated it 4 of 5 stars

Let’s say you’re a Christian reader—not the type who reads heavyweight theology. You might read a couple of pages of Grudem from time to time. You read Rick Warren with your church, toughed through Tim Keller after you heard your pastor quote him a few times, and even picked up Platt when you heard someone tell you that you were called to the mission field … along with every other Christian you know and don’t know. You spend each day proud that you’re not of this world, and that you’re just pass...more Let’s say you’re a Christian reader—not the type who reads heavyweight theology. You might read a couple of pages of Grudem from time to time. You read Rick Warren with your church, toughed through Tim Keller after you heard your pastor quote him a few times, and even picked up Platt when you heard someone tell you that you were called to the mission field … along with every other Christian you know and don’t know. You spend each day proud that you’re not of this world, and that you’re just passing through. You live a content life knowing that everything’s all right between “you and Jesus.” You finally feel comfortable telling the tract hoards that your response to Jesus, if you died tonight and He asked “Why should I let you through the pearly gates of My heaven?” would be “Only by Your blood!” You’ve stopped smoking, drinking, cussing, and listening to secular music because you know Jesus might turn you away if you were to arrive at His gates flicking a cigarette, swigging from a dark brown bottle, and, with your usual curled upper-lip and slight squint, offering the cherubim and seraphim a confident yet playful “What’s up, bitches?”—all while the sorcery of that worldly vixen Taylor Swift flows through that one earbud hanging from your head. If this is you, you might find SURPRISED BY HOPE a challenging and insightful read. Wright won’t convince you that all your moral decisions (as mentioned above), regardless of your sincerity, will not get you to heaven. He’s not another rank-and-file member of the tract hoard … extended edition. Wright’s book just might pull the floor from beneath your feet and convince you to stop alienating and victimizing yourself in this world—a world in which you’ve been convinced does not apply to you because of your status as a “citizen of heaven.” He might convince you that Jesus has saved you FOR the world and set you apart to bring forth His Kingdom by valuing it as a the stage on which the last three acts will unfold. He might bother you when his idea of “heaven” doesn’t align with the alto part of that hymn you like so much. He might make you question that image of the Jigsaw God you used to and still worry about (before you decided to stop watching horror movies like the SAW franchise). He might even convince you to ask the same questions Rob Bell is asking—the ones your pastor told you not to read as part of his well-meaning duty to protect his flock from the goats prancing bleating the shofar around the Walls of Orthodoxy. But if you’re the scholarly pastor or the arm-chair theologian, you should probably skip out on this one (unless you want to steal some great analogies to share with your congregation or Sunday School class) and read Wright’s unfinished magnum opus Christian Origins and the question of God Series, which includes THE NEW TESTAMENT AND THE PEOPLE OF GOD, JESUS AND THE VICTORY OF GOD and THE RESURRECTION OF THE SON OF GOD. You should skip SURPRISED and go for the more detailed, footnoted arguments of the same information—as a matter of fact, most of what you’ll find in SURPRISED was taken straight from these three books—so if you’re the type to critically evaluate, I say go for the depth and get Wright’s series instead.(less)

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Aug 10, 2011 Evan L. rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: theology

For now, I will just post this: if I could recommend one book of theology for Christians to read, this would be it. So important in helping us get it right on how to think about the Kingdom of God, and to fix our pop-culture understandings of heaven and hell. Read this book along with Love Wins and The Great Divorce (although Love Wins does not really belong in the same sentence as the other two even though I think it is fairly good myself).

In brief, Wright convincingly argues that a true New Te...more

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Jul 26, 2011 Vanessa rated it 1 of 5 stars

It's quite rare for me to throw in the towel on a book before the end, but now a third of the way into Wright's book I expect I won't be finishing. Why?

For one, I don't understand Wright's obsession with literal, physical, material resurrection.

Wright makes a distinction early in the book that seems to be the keystone of his whole approach. He says that incorporeal life after death would not fulfill the biblical assertion that Jesus conquered death -- that in order to "conquer" death, there must...more

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Jul 02, 2011 Frank Peters rated it 3 of 5 stars

The book was very insightful, with many items that really need to be said. So why haven't I given it a 4 or 5? Because there was a major disconnect in my understanding of the content and what the author was trying to say. Loosely, I read the author telling us that because there will be a real bodily resurrection, therefore we need to go out and plant trees (or look after the poor, or help solve third world debt, etc.). The connection between the resurrection and the "social gospel" was not made...more

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May 04, 2011 Bojan Tunguz rated it 5 of 5 stars

N. T. Wright is a brilliant scholar and theologian, and his series of books on early Christianity has become somewhat of a gold standard in terms of breath and scope of topics and themes that were explored. Those books use the most exhaustive critical methods and most up to date historical scholarship in order to establish the credibility and persuasiveness of the events that shaped the early Christianity, and especially to support the traditional view of those events. The most important of thes...more N. T. Wright is a brilliant scholar and theologian, and his series of books on early Christianity has become somewhat of a gold standard in terms of breath and scope of topics and themes that were explored. Those books use the most exhaustive critical methods and most up to date historical scholarship in order to establish the credibility and persuasiveness of the events that shaped the early Christianity, and especially to support the traditional view of those events. The most important of these events is certainly the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the book that exhaustively deals with is The Resurrection of the Son of God (Christian Origins and the Question of God, Vol. 3). The only "problem" with that book is that it is too long and scholarly for a general reader, and thus it may not reach as wide of an audience as would be desirable. This is partly the issue that "Surprised by Hope" tries to address. It reiterates some of the main points of "The Resurrection" and presents them in readable and accessible form. It makes the main arguments far more succinctly, but also more forcefully. The chief one of those, in my opinion, is that Christianity is not mainly or even primarily concerned with "life after death," but rather with "life after life after death." This is the point that most Christians and non-Christians routinely get wrong. What is at stake, according to Wright, is that by misunderstanding what resurrection and Christian hope are all about we are much less equipped to give a strong defense of that hope and make that hope relevant for our daily life. It prevents us from living the kind of life that would fully reflect our Christian vocation in the World.

The second part of the book deals with the issues that Wright thinks would benefit from our deeper understanding of resurrection and Christian hope. He has some of his own pet issues that he believes should receive top priority in our concern for the World, like the alleviation of poverty in the global south. He tries to make the connection between our belief in the future resurrection and our action on these issues, but the connection is not always as clear as he might have hoped for. This is particularly the case with some issues of lesser importance, and towards the end of the book Wright employs more of rhetoric than strong concrete arguments. The book becomes a bit too preachy for my taste, but that shouldn't be too surprising: after all, it was written by a bishop. However, even with these shortcoming this is an extremely well written book that provokes Christians to seriously rethink their most fundamental assumptions and reappropriate the message of Christian hope for the 21st century. (less)

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Mar 12, 2010 Eric rated it 4 of 5 stars

Part 1 deals with our present beliefs on Jesus' resurrection but especially our resurrection and whether we go to heaven or whether (as Wright argues) we will eventually be resurrected on this same earth. He argues against the two predominate arguments that currently abound: 1. That we will go to heaven and this earth will be destroyed and 2. We die and become eternal spirits on the earth (or something like that).

Part 2: Wright argues that earth will be changed, redeemed, but not destroyed. Ther...more

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Feb 04, 2010 John rated it 3 of 5 stars

I heartily endorse NT Wright's thesis: a robust doctrine of the bodily resurrection of Christ necessarily impacts our lives. Wright spends much of his book shooting shots across the bows of both the fundamentalists and the liberals.

Wright attacks the fundamentalists' belief in a non-corporeal resurrection, grounded in an implicit dualism. It's an important attack. This idea that the real part of us is our immortal souls which will, alone, live on in heaven, is not just non-scriptural, it's anti-...more I heartily endorse NT Wright's thesis: a robust doctrine of the bodily resurrection of Christ necessarily impacts our lives. Wright spends much of his book shooting shots across the bows of both the fundamentalists and the liberals.

Wright attacks the fundamentalists' belief in a non-corporeal resurrection, grounded in an implicit dualism. It's an important attack. This idea that the real part of us is our immortal souls which will, alone, live on in heaven, is not just non-scriptural, it's anti-scriptural. Furthermore, as NT Wright points out, it has several deleterious effects: it undermines any urgency for the church to do her work here and now; it can reify unjust social institutions; it can lead toward a truncated understanding of how we are to respect and appreciate the bodily existence God has granted us.

Wright also attacks the liberals' belief in a spiritual resurrection. Ironically, the liberals function in a similar fashion as the fundamentalists. Their belief in the metaphoric or symbolic or spiritual meaning of the resurrection of Christ for the individual is even more problematic. Anyone who is familiar with Wright knows that he can muster a strong argument in support of the historic resurrection of the man, Jesus of Nazareth, and he levies such an argument here. The lack of belief in the literal resurrection of Jesus Christ is a tenuous historical position to take and one that leaves the church utterly devoid of meaning.

I very much appreciated this book. Wright's attack on the dualism that informs both conservatives and liberals is important. Wright's insistence on the importance of the bodily resurrection of Christ is essential. And, at times, Wright provides a powerfully lucid account of the meaning of the resurrection. His terse word picture in Chapter 14, of heaevn and earth as "twin interlocking spheres of God's single created reality," for example, is one that not only rings true, but helped provide a powerfully informative image for me.

That said, the book, in my judgment, oftentimes comes across as too hastily written and too poorly edited. At times Wright's bombastic claims (third world debt relief is the slavery/Holocaust of our age, to name one) ring a bit hollow and are not very carefully laid out. Similarly, his attacks, while instructive, too often are aimed at strawmen or the margins of the church. And finally, while his critique could have been edited to half to 2/3rds of its length, he leaves a good deal to be desired on the practical positive outworking of his call.

All in all, it's a book worth the read.(less)

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Aug 31, 2009 Kevin Greenlee rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-that-shaped-my-life, philosophy, theology, favorites

Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church by N.T. Wright

Before I get into any longwinded discussion of N.T. Wright’s Surprised by Hope, let me just say that it’s absolutely amazing. I picked this book up and could hardly put it down, its presentation of Christian doctrine is incredible and for many it will be revolutionary (though it is really the historic understanding of things). Get this book, read it, then give it to your friends so they can read i...more Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church by N.T. Wright

Before I get into any longwinded discussion of N.T. Wright’s Surprised by Hope, let me just say that it’s absolutely amazing. I picked this book up and could hardly put it down, its presentation of Christian doctrine is incredible and for many it will be revolutionary (though it is really the historic understanding of things). Get this book, read it, then give it to your friends so they can read it. Don’t just take my word for it either, Dallas Willard, Rob Bell and Richard Foster all praise the book, and their recommendation should carry a bit more weight than mine I think. Now, on to why I think this book is so incredible.

I picked up Surprised by Hope while visiting Regent College, the seminary in Canada where I hope to do my masters education. I’d been given a $25 gift card by the college, and was looking around the store for something to pick, finding myself quite overwhelmed by the sheer quality and quantity of books available. One of the concepts which I’ve been thinking a lot about recently, has been the importance of embodiment, specifically as it relates to the biblical and historic conception of the afterlife. Thus, when asked if I needed help finding anything, I asked to see if they had any books on that subject, and I was immediately taken to several (the man knew what I meant and knew where to find it without looking it up, is that cool or what?). As I said, there were several, but in the end I decided to pick up Surprised by Hope, and as you already know I was not disappointed.

The book is subtitled Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church, and it addresses the true biblical hope for our futures, the significance of the bodily resurrection of Christ and how these two things relate to the mission of the church in the world today. This is a book bursting with hope, and filled with the message that our lives as Christians have deep significance in the here and now. The book addresses many of the false ideas that have grown up in Western civilization about the biblical understanding of human nature and the afterlife, and seeks to recover the historical understanding of these things, which as Dallas Willard says “uniquely meets the challenge facing the Church by recovering the original, radical understanding of resurrection, salvation and the Good news of life now in the Kingdom of God.”

If I have one criticism of the book, it’s that I don’t think Wright is quite emphatic enough in emphasizing that building for the Kingdom must not take the form of a Theocracy. Mind you, he says this, but I just wish he’d made it more clear.

Anyway, as I said, read this book, and hopefully it will change your reading of the Bible, and also your life.(less)

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Apr 14, 2009 Adam Shields rated it 5 of 5 stars

I thought this was a very important book. As with some other articles of his that I have read, he tends to over play his argument a bit, but in summary he thinks that we spend too much time thinking about heaven and not enough time living on earth. He posits (and I think there is a good bit of support for) the fact that there will be a new Heaven and Earth and that the resurrection will have us on the new Earth living and working for Christ without sin, as God originally intended. He suggests th...more

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Apr 12, 2013 Ivan rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: theology

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is no esoteric subject. The first thing Wright sets out to do is expose the false notion of death as merely a menacing foe that the Christian surrenders to rather than conquering. He does this by examining popular literature and hymnody and noting the underlying view of the afterlife. (An example is the hymn, “How Great thou Art.” In the final stanza it affirms: “When Christ shall come, with shout of acclamation, / And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart.”...more

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Apr 07, 2011 Ben De Bono rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: theology

At risk of sounding hyperbolic, let me start this review by saying that Surprised by Hope is not only one of the best books I've ever read, it's also among the most important. Let me also say that anyone considering reading Rob Bell's latest, Love Wins, should skip that book and read this instead. Surprised By Hope is much better written, contains all of the good theology present in Love Wins (or more accurately, Love Wins contains Surprised By Hope's theology) and avoids and corrects the major...more At risk of sounding hyperbolic, let me start this review by saying that Surprised by Hope is not only one of the best books I've ever read, it's also among the most important. Let me also say that anyone considering reading Rob Bell's latest, Love Wins, should skip that book and read this instead. Surprised By Hope is much better written, contains all of the good theology present in Love Wins (or more accurately, Love Wins contains Surprised By Hope's theology) and avoids and corrects the major theological errors in Bell's book.

In this book, Wright reexamines our view of eternity in light of biblical teaching. His basic argument is this. Our final destination is not a disembodied existence in some alternate dimension called Heaven, but the merger of Heaven and Earth which happens at the second coming. Our hope is in the resurrection of the dead and the renewal of creation, not in an evacuation plan that leaves this world behind.

The argument is far more complex than that, but even in that brief description you can see that this is a book that will get under some people's skin. Wright goes after and dismantles Left Behind eschatology, including the rapture (an unbiblical concept based on a complete misreading of 1 Thessalonians 4:17). This will be disruptive for many, but hopefully those in that camp will at least give Wright's arguments the consideration they deserve. He's not trying to reinvent Scripture but instead is holding our traditional views and doctrines up to the light of Scripture. His goal is a more biblical view, not an abandonment of biblical teaching.

The book is divided into three parts. In the first, he goes back to Jewish world Jesus was apart of. He shows how Judaism's hope was not focused on a disembodied Heaven but on the resurrection of the dead. Jesus was, as it says in 1 Corinthians 15, the firstfruits of that resurrection. Therefore, the bodily resurrection of Jesus is not a secondary issue, it is everything. If we lose it, we lose Christianity. This section also includes one of the best apologetic defenses of the resurrection I've come across.

The second part looks at the implication of the resurrection, both of Jesus and the promised resurrection of the dead, on our views of eternity and eschatology. It's here that Wright discusses the theology outlined above. His writing about the new creation and where our hope as Christians truly lies is deeply moving. More than once I found myself close to tears reading his words. The hope of the Gospel is better than what we've been taught.

It's a similar theme to what's encountered in John Eldredge's work, and I'd recommend this book especially to fans of Eldredge. For as much as I appreciate his work, it does lack the intellectual depth and theological rigor found in Wright. Eldredge goes for the heart, Wright more for the head and both wind up with an incredibly moving and powerful view of what life in Christ is truly all about.

In the final section, Wright examines what the church's mission should be for today in light of this theology. He argues that the church's job is not simply to sit around and wait for Heaven but to help bring about the new creation here and now, not as a replacement for what's to come but in anticipation of it. Wright argues that our focus should be on three things: justice, beauty and evangelism. We're too fight injustice in this world, create art and beauty that neither denies evil nor succumbs to it but instead reflects the hope of our faith, and proclaim the Gospel that Jesus is king and that all are called to obediently follow him.

Reading other reviews, I've noticed some are particularly harsh on Wright in this section because of his focus on justice. Let me say first that I am very conservative politically. Wright and I would likely not see eye to eye on many political issues. I don't fully agree with everything he says in his section on justice, but I do 100% agree with his theological point behind what he says. We are called as Christians to fight injustice, to confront systems of corruption and oppression and to care for those who have no voice. Wright emphasizes economic injustice above all else. I think we must also include things such as the 4,000 babies aborted everyday in the US. However, we both agree that Christians are called to fight injustice. I find it unfortunate that many of my fellow conservatives have been so shortsighted in analyzing this section of the book.

Surprised By Hope is a life changing read. I cannot recommend this book enough. I believe it desperately needs to be read, understood and put into practice by the western church. It will be to our shame should we fail to listen to Wright's critiques of our beliefs and actions.(less)

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May 18, 2012 Justin Lonas rated it 3 of 5 stars

Most Christians, if asked “What happens when you die?” would state emphatically that they will go to heaven to be with God, thanks to the sacrifice of Christ. N.T. Wright challenges that notion and proposes instead a return to the New Testament idea of bodily resurrection as a part of God’s restoration of all creation at the end of the age.

Wright contends that many Christians cling to “going to heaven when you die” as an escape from the world instead of embracing a theology of resurrection that...more Most Christians, if asked “What happens when you die?” would state emphatically that they will go to heaven to be with God, thanks to the sacrifice of Christ. N.T. Wright challenges that notion and proposes instead a return to the New Testament idea of bodily resurrection as a part of God’s restoration of all creation at the end of the age.

Wright contends that many Christians cling to “going to heaven when you die” as an escape from the world instead of embracing a theology of resurrection that sees Jesus’ resurrection as the first fruit of God’s ultimate redemption and the church’s mission as proclaiming Christ’s dominion over all. In short, he firmly believes that we are “saved to” service for the glory of God as much as we are “saved from” sin.

The book is divided into three parts. The first discusses the muddle of beliefs about life after death in the world and explains that Christ’s resurrection is the breaking forth of God’s kingdom on earth.

The second section delves into our future hope, specifically, how Christ’s resurrection paves the way for our life in His kingdom.

In the final third of the book, Wright spells out his vision for the mission of the church. He is at his finest as he attempts to ground the church’s efforts in the present day (from evangelism to social justice, art, and conservation) solidly in resurrection theology and liberate them both from modernist progressivism (which places the emphasis on the work instead of God) and traditional evangelicalism (which sees such work only as an addendum to saving souls for heaven).

Most readers will find Wright’s work engaging and, at times, controversial. His willingness to turn traditional understanding on its ear is as troubling as his reliance on the Scriptures is reassuring. What he succeeds quite admirably in doing, however, is to drive readers back to the Word of God to see for themselves how Christ’s resurrection demands so much more from believers than passive longing for heaven(less)

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Jan 25, 2009 Pattieb rated it 5 of 5 stars

NT Wright is a bishop in the Anglican church and an influential theologian.

Surprised by Hope explores the truly biblical concept of what happens after we die (going temporarily to a place we call heaven, then to the re-created, redeemed heavens and earth) and how the reality of that affects our lives now.

Wright's purpose is to shake Christians away from the pie-in-the-sky idea of heaven that causes us to lose interest in this world. His theology centers on the significance of Jesus's resurrectio...more

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Mar 25, 2012 James rated it 4 of 5 stars

Four Thoughts on This Book:

1 - I was slightly apprehensive when I started reading this book, largely because all I knew of N.T. Wright was that he and Piper had beef with each other's views on justification. After reading this book, however, I found Wright's views on this subject at least to be quite orthodox.

2 - In addition to being biblically sound, Wright presents a new (to me) and inspiring way of looking at God's purpose in creation, salvation, and restoration. At the heart of this view is...more Four Thoughts on This Book:

1 - I was slightly apprehensive when I started reading this book, largely because all I knew of N.T. Wright was that he and Piper had beef with each other's views on justification. After reading this book, however, I found Wright's views on this subject at least to be quite orthodox.

2 - In addition to being biblically sound, Wright presents a new (to me) and inspiring way of looking at God's purpose in creation, salvation, and restoration. At the heart of this view is the insistence on a physical resurrection that will be the culmination of God's restorative work. Affirming the physical, historical resurrection of Christ and the physical eventual resurrection of God's people has implications for how we view the purpose of the Church. I would summarize Wright's view as such: the main purpose of the Church is to participate and to be used as instruments in God's restorative work. This finds purchase both in the evangelistic work of saving individual human beings and in the "social gospel" work of fighting injustice and evil in this world.

3 - Wright makes the point that we do in this world matters, because the earth will be restored, not replaced. This ties in largely with Wright's view of the purpose of the Church. He tries to differentiate himself from what he considers to be the two main ways in which the Church misapplies itself in regard to its purpose, that is, by either focusing entirely on saving souls for heaven, or on healing ills and righting injustices in this world. Wright points out that both are important, and that focusing on one does not give license to ignore the other. In particular, he takes issue with those who would argue that if the world is going to be destroyed eventually, then it doesn't matter what happens to it in the meantime. Since Wright's entire paradigm is that of restoration, this is not a view that fits into his theology.

4 - Wright has a habit of framing issues by presenting two differing views as "polar opposites," then presenting his view, which lies somewhere in the middle. While in some situations this is indeed the case, it struck me as a somewhat lazy rhetorical device to use it so often.(less)

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May 31, 2012 Special K rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: theology

I picked this up mainly because it was recommended at the end of Rob Bell's book Love Wins, but also because of having heard lots of good things about N.T. Wright.

I was hoping to find a more in-depth treatment on the topics of heaven/hell and salvation (after reading Bell's rather shallow treatment and wanting to find out more), but unfortunately Wright only devoted a few pages of his book to these topics (thought these pages were really good).

However, writing on the topic of the Resurrection,...more I picked this up mainly because it was recommended at the end of Rob Bell's book Love Wins, but also because of having heard lots of good things about N.T. Wright.

I was hoping to find a more in-depth treatment on the topics of heaven/hell and salvation (after reading Bell's rather shallow treatment and wanting to find out more), but unfortunately Wright only devoted a few pages of his book to these topics (thought these pages were really good).

However, writing on the topic of the Resurrection, Wright did do a good job of reframing questions about life after death in general. I must admit, I've never known how to think, or what to think, of the Resurrection. Wright explains how neither the fundamentalism interpretation (the Resurrection was a huge miracle to prove that miracles are real and that people will go to heaven after they die) or the liberal interpretation (the Resurrection was not bodily but is a symbolic myth to show that Jesus is alive in our hearts) are a good way of looking at it. His view is that the bodily Resurrection was the inauguration of the kingdom of God on earth, as a sign of God's renewal of physical creation, and that all of Scripture and church life must be interpreted in the light of this event. This interpretation is a rejection of dualism (either the fundy version of a physical/spiritual split between the natural and the supernatural, or the liberal dualism which favors a spiritual versus a historical interpretation).

The rest of the book is an attempt to explain the paradox of the already here/but not yet here kingdom of God. A foundational concept to Christianity, I agree, but not one that lends itself to easy explanation. I kept turning the pages hoping to figure it out by the end, but this is still a giant murky mystery to me.

My only issue with the book (aside from the disappointment of the several hundred pages rehashing the concept of the new creation already being begun in the Resurrection, with really not much added clarity to this enigmatic idea) was when Wright would say thing like: "however, the New Testament is crystal-clear on this topic". Clearly not, or things wouldn't have gotten so muddled by now. The book is heavy on exegesis and short on history of ideas, and I've always favored the latter, but as Wright is a biblical scholar I can't really fault him for that. Just wanted to explain the knocking off of two stars from my rating.(less)

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Jun 13, 2011 Matt Carpenter rated it 3 of 5 stars

N.T. Wright is a great writer, and he brings cultural context out of bibical passages as well as anyone I know. His treatment of our future hope is a much needed medecine to evangelical's rapture fever. In this volume (a toned down version of his larger work, The Resurrection of the Son of God) he critiques the faulty ideas present in Christian society about what happens after we die, why we should care, and why our ultimate hope is not about going to heaven.

There are two reasons I gave the boo...more

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Apr 08, 2010 Caleb rated it 5 of 5 stars

I highly recommend this book. Wright does an excellent job cutting through confusion within Christianity and the world about death, heaven, and resurrection and presents a clear picture from the New Testament of what the Christian Hope really is.

He has controversial elements, and I don't even necessarily agree on all of the finer points. But the book is very well written and after reading, I find it hard to dispute the major theme of the book. Reading his theology on heaven and eschatology was...more

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About N.T. Wright

N. T. Wright is the former Bishop of Durham in the Church of England (2003-2010) and one of the world's leading Bible scholars. He is now serving as the chair of New Testament and Early Christianity at the School of Divinity at the University of St. Andrews. He has been featured on ABC News, Dateline NBC, The Colbert Report, and Fresh Air, and he has taught New Testament studies at Cambridge, McGi...more

More about N.T. Wright...

Books by N.T. Wright

Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense

The Challenge of Jesus: Rediscovering Who Jesus Was and Is

The New Testament and the People of God (Christian Origins and the Question of God, #1)

Jesus and the Victory of God (Christian Origins and the Question of God, #2)

The Resurrection of the Son of God (Christian Origins and the Question of God, #3)

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“The point of the resurrection…is that the present bodily life is not valueless just because it will die…What you do with your body in the present matters because God has a great future in store for it…What you do in the present—by painting, preaching, singing, sewing, praying, teaching, building hospitals, digging wells, campaigning for justice, writing poems, caring for the needy, loving your neighbor as yourself—will last into God's future. These activities are not simply ways of making the present life a little less beastly, a little more bearable, until the day when we leave it behind altogether (as the hymn so mistakenly puts it…). They are part of what we may call building for God's kingdom.” — 57 people liked it

“Jesus's resurrection is the beginning of God's new project not to snatch people away from earth to heaven but to colonize earth with the life of heaven. That, after all, is what the Lord's Prayer is about.” — 41 people liked it

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