N.T. Wright explains the world of the New Testament in new book

[guillaumeb]

From the article:

….Wright, a retired Anglican bishop and now chair of New Testament and early Christianity at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, is author more than 80 popular and academic books about Christianity and the Bible. The latest — co-authored with fellow scholar Michael F. Bird — is “The New Testament in Its World: An Introduction to the History, Literature, and Theology of the First Christians.”....

Many Christians look to the kingdom of God as an escape in the next life and are hesitant to upset the status quo in the here and now, leaving that to politicians and social workers, he said. Others believe Jesus and his followers expected the kingdom of God to be the literal end of the world, and since they were wrong about that, they must be wrong about other things, reconstructing those things for themselves in ways that have “often led to quite radical theology.”

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“Actually, the kingdom of God at hand means God’s kingdom coming in unexpected ways on earth as in heaven — not away somewhere else and not destroying earth, but transforming it.”

To read more:

https://religionnews.com/2019/11/21/n-t-wright-explains-the-world-of-the-new-testament-in-new-book/

[Adsos Letter]

1. I received this book yesterday.

It’s a major reference work at almost 1,000 pages.

I’m going to start reading a chapter per day.

[guillaumeb]

2. Please follow up with a book report.

I am reading "Zealot, The life and times of Jesus of Nazareth", by Reza Aslan.

[Adsos Letter]

3. Happy to.

My BA and MA are in History, with a fair amount of Apocalyptic Studies thrown in (addressing the issue of how the adherence to various Jewish, Christian, and Islamic eschatological expectations cause people to act in their socio-political present).

I am interested in his interpretation of 1st century Christianity.

[guillaumeb]

6. Reza Aslan gives his view of the 1st century intersection of Palestine, the Messianic

tendency, and Jewish/Roman relations as they relate to the message of Jesus.

[Karadeniz]

4. I find indications that when referring to the kingdom of god, often the soul is meant.

[guillaumeb]

7. And also the Kingdom of God as being a state of mind.

In my view, concepts such as heaven and hell refer to the relationship with the Creator, or the absence thereof.

[LAS14]

5. Thanks for the heads up! nt

[LAS14]

8. Thanks. Got it for hubby's Christmas present. nt

[guillaumeb]

9. Please write back with a review after Christmas. eom