God in Public: How the Bible Speaks Truth to Power Today

by Tom Wright

A thoughtful and provocative book, in the vein of C. S. Lewis's classic The Weight of Glory

Tom Wright was recently acclaimed by Newsweek as 'the world's leading New Testament scholar'. For all who appreciated his Surprised by Scripture and would like to learn more about how biblical principles can help us to address pressing contemporary concerns. What has Christianity to do with power? Why must the church remind those in authority of their responsibilities? What can Christians do to act as the voice of the voiceless? How can speaking of God in public help to create new structures of international justice and peace? These are the central questions running through Tom Wright's latest book, in which he demonstrates the many ways in which faithful exegesis of scripture can throw fresh light - God's light - on the great philosophical and ethical problems of our day.

Genres: Theology, Politics, Religion, Christian, Nonfiction, Christianity

210 pages, Paperback

Published April 21, 2016

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

He also publishes under N.T. Wright.

Reviews

[Jesse Baker · Rating 3 out of 5]

N.T. Wright is gifted in engaging with a plethora of perspectives from his Evangelical/Anglican worldview. The reason of gave this book three stars was because of his repetition concerning his kingdom/new creation/resurrection theology. Since the book is a work of individual lectures, the succinct flow of thought that is seen in his other writings, such as ‘Surprised by Hope’, is missing. I appreciated Wright’s critique on the Modernistic and the Post-Modernistic worldviews and how the deep roots of Christ’s love climaxed in the victory of Christ on the cross is able to transform the unjust political structures of our society. Thus, this is a call to be courageous and unpopular — just like William Wilberforce when he stood up against the unjust structures of slavery.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tom Wright is an extremely prolific writer - he has produced over seventy books. This is the latest, but it seems to have had little attention so far, which is a shame as the theme is very important.
The book is a collection of lectures Wright has delivered from 1999 to 2015, so there is nothing new here, although the lectures have been updated for publication. Each deal in different ways with faith and public life - or as the title of the book has it: God in Public.

One key theme comes through several times: there is a stand-off between fundamentalism and secularism in the public arena. This clash is shot through with three elements: postmodernity, Gnosticism and empire. These themes are echoed again and again throughout the lectures. Particularly in the first three chapters - which for me were the stand out chapters.

Wright is strong on critique of the (failed) Enlightenment project and the analysis of worldview. He is weaker on the practical aspects. He gives some example of doing God in public; these include, Desmond Tutu, Cicely Saunders, Wilberforce, the street pastors and the salvation Army. But what is lacking is the emphasis on Christians organising for political action - there is no mention, for example on the possibility of a Christian political party or trades union. Nevertheless, Wright does show that doing God in public is a necessary and that religion and politics do mix.

[Drew · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of recent lectures and is thus by nature somewhat repetitive. However, if you are a fan of Wright you will enjoy this collection greatly. If you are new to him, this would make an excellent introduction to his overall project: this collection comes back frequently to New Testament studies, both Jesus and Paul, eschatology, and his critiques of modernism and postmodernism along with his call to return to a vision of the Kingdom - all couched in terms of the relationship of Christian faith to the public order.

[Lindsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

N.T. Wright and I disagree quite a bit more than expected on this topic. I did appreciate reading his point of view and often agreed along the way and then he’d take it too far. (More control by the UN is never going to be the solution to world problems. Government corruption would not be solved with a bigger, more powerful government! Sorry, Wright.) But I was glad to think through some areas that perhaps I had not considered. I would still recommend the book even though I disagree with Wright and find some of his examples severely lacking.

[Jason Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, but leaving me not totally sure what’s it’s ultimately driving.

Wright begins his thesis with the proposition that the modern rejection of Christian discourse is partly down to the postmodern rejection of secular and religious meta narrative. So far so good, I think. He counters this by arguing that the cross inaugurates a world where God is back in charge, hence the phrase thy kingdom come on earth....

Some of his counters to the rejection of this work better than others . There is powerful application in the chapters on God’s powerful foolishness vs man’s foolish power, virtue and speaking to Governments while rejection the wrong sort of worldly preoccupation. Some of his other political solutions though seem like they are leaning towards a one world Government.

I think ultimately he is right that we need to be more concerned with God’s in chargeness in this world rather than be resigned to it not being so. Some of his application is a good step towards this. Some of it takes abut more chewing.

[Christian Wermeskerch · Rating 3 out of 5]

With how much this book references back to Creation, Power, and Truth, I have a hard time recommended this one without having read the (unofficial) previous volume. I think this book suffers from one of the problems with how Wright is published. Some are simply very redundant; some require too much pre-knowledge of Wright to read on its own (like this one); and some are so popular level some of his regular nuances and scholarship is missing. This is a helpful book, but I feel having lived in Wright's head for months now, I could almost write the body of the content (save his British illustrations). Good, but not a "must-read".

[Zach Waldis · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you've read most of Wright's stuff, as I have, there's little new material here. Sometimes I wish Wright would scrap some of his projects and really focus on something new, like the Pastoral Epistles or something.

[Jacek · Rating 5 out of 5]

A thought-provoking and challenging book about how Christians should live their faith in the public sphere.

[David Campton · Rating 3 out of 5]

An anthology of lectures on similar subjects, so it's a bit repetitive and not quite so systematic or in depth as some of his New Testament stuff. Not entirely convinced by his critical assessment of the Enlightenment, nor by his apologia for a established church in terms of a negotiation of the sacred/secular interface. Also found it frustratingly theoretical, dealing, especially in the closing chapters, with pressing issues but offering no concrete solutions.

[Barrie Lawrence · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had heard such good things about Tom Wright's books, and looked forward to reading this one when received as a gift from my daughter. Also, it received a top rating in Christianity magazine.

But it was hard going. I gained my university degree 50 years ago, and have been a Christian for 51, but help - I couldn't understand some of the long words! Firstly, I feel this book is for people more intelligent than me. Intellectuals and theologians, perhaps. Secondly, although I agree that we should actively embrace and act upon the principles of Jesus' teaching, and Jesus' life, I do not think they will really change governments, the establishment, or any of those who hold power and authority in this world. I believe the world will get blacker, and the church become brighter, until Jesus returns. Maybe both Tom Wright and I are revealing our eschatological positions in, respectively, his book and my humble review.

But the book was not without value to me. At last I have read Tom Wright, and parts of the book were encouraging.

[Frank Peters · Rating 4 out of 5]

God in Public, by Tom (or NT) Wright aims to provide a necessary corrective to the historic and incorrect partnership between Christianity and the various powers of the world. Topically, the book is a merging of Francis Schaeffer, who discussed the enlightenment’s induced forced separation between the religious and the secular, and a more academic version of Rob Bell’s book “Jesus wants to save Christians too”. In the book Wright bravely challenges the west’s violent response to 9/11 and suggests that not only was it inappropriate, as well as arguing that it was logically flawed as a modernist response to a post-modern problem. He then expands the book to discuss a more Jesus inspired way to approaching the public problems we find ourselves in, based on actually following the pattern of Jesus life and teaching.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

What does Jesus' life and death have to do with the power structures of the world? What philosophies influence power and civilizations? What is the call of the Church to be in the world? Why has (and is) inaugurated eschatology the answer? Read this book!

[Daria Zheglo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not persuading enough. The author is overly intellectual and instead of proving the importance of Bible today, he is just complaining about the lack in all the religious institutions. Bad, bad, bad

[Andy Gore · Rating 5 out of 5]

As always a book worth reading s-l-o-w-l-y to get as much out of it as possible.