Tom Wright

Not that he needs my endorsement, but I shameless admit to being an N.T. Wright fanboy. Here's a little associative exercise...

Apple Geek : Knows what Steve Jobs had for breakfast
N.T. Wright Fanboy : Slips into a British accent when talking theology

Okay, I'm not that bad, but his work has been pretty huge for me over the past several years. In the same way that The Challenge of Jesus shook some foundations, Surprised by Hope is making me weak in the knees all over again. But in a good way. A really, really good way.

One of major frustrations for me over the past few years has been reconciling all these ideas about the kingdom of God with the slow process of discovering an authentic way of being church in our context. God's kingdom keeps pushing us forward, way beyond what we are capable of experiencing right now. The problem (at least from my perspective, maybe other people don't think this way) is that I feel as if we're struggling to keep up. We relate, as church, on the basis of our past experiences - good and bad - and the potluck theology we've collectively accumulated. That could be a recipe for disaster, or at least for stagnation.

This is why I find Wright's work so refreshing. He is cleaning up my messy potluck and helping me put together a coherent meal. This is also why, I believe, he is facing so much resistence from certain theological strains. He is presenting a comprehensive vision of Christianity that is challenging convictions that might be blindspots or in some cases just plain wrong. Not to say his vision is perfect, it just makes a heck of a lot of sense for someone like me with 30-years of evangelicalism in my blood.

In order to move forward into the whatever-is-next of God's kingdom, we need to grab hold of a comprehensive Story about God, what he has done, what he is doing, and what he will do. Wright, unlike some of his contemporaries from a more liberal bent, does not throw the baby out with the bathwater. He says, "Here is the baby - who has been here all along, but in some significant ways we did not recongize her." Jesus, the Kingdom, the cross, the resurrection, Paul, the early church, mission, and the world to come - all questions with answers that have more or less been all over the map. Wright is helping to bring coherence and answers which I believe will only serve to help the church in transition.