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Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church | 
 enlarge | Author: N. T. Wright
Publisher: HarperOne
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  22 reviews
Sales Rank: 362
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.3 x 0.9
ISBN: 0061551821
Dewey Decimal Number: 236.8
EAN: 9780061551826
ASIN: 0061551821
Publication Date: February 1, 2008
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Product Description
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 premier Bible scholars, asserts that Christianity's most distinctive idea is bodily resurrection. He provides a magisterial defense for a literal resurrection of Jesus and shows how this became the cornerstone for the Christian community's hope in the bodily resurrection of all people at the end of the age. Wright then explores our expectation of "new heavens and a new earth," revealing what happens to the dead until then and what will happen with the "second coming" of Jesus. For many, including many Christians, all this will come as a great surprise. Wright convincingly argues that what we believe about life after death directly affects what we believe about life before death. For if God intends to renew the whole creation—and if this has already begun in Jesus's resurrection—the church cannot stop at "saving souls" but must anticipate the eventual renewal by working for God's kingdom in the wider world, bringing healing and hope in the present life. Lively and accessible, this book will surprise and excite all who are interested in the meaning of life, not only after death but before it.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 17 more reviews...
 Needed work from the right Theologian. June 29, 2008
This excellent work from N. T. Wright is a more popular treatment of his message that started with his book "The Resurrection of the Son of God." In this work Wright emphasizes the hope of new creation through resurrection. There is currently a move away from the orthodox view of the bodily resurrection toward a more Platonic view that says that we die, our bodies stay in the grave, and we go to heaven and stay there in disembodied bliss. Wright, who is a great exegete, theologian, and historian sets the record straight about the resurrection of Jesus as well as the resurrection of all those in Christ. Wright shows how that new creation began at the resurrection of Jesus and how that we are to live in light of the resurrection, looking forward to new creation. I strongly recommend this work.
Surprised by Hope June 4, 2008
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
I loved N.T. Wright's newest book, Surprised by Hope. He explores the meat of the Christian hope, what he calls the after-afterlife.
Wright addresses the misconceptions (a.k.a. bad theology) that's infiltrated not just the world (i.e. reincarnation), but also Christianity (i.e. when we all get to heaven).
The belief in Jesus' physical resurrection is on the line here, folks. If you believe in Jesus' physical resurrection, if you believe that he is the firstfruits, than you have to believe that we do will experience that physical resurrection. The whole earth (which now groans) will experience it.
Wright turns the gospel message upside-down. No, he turns how we talk about the gospel message upside-down. It begins with an overarching story--God's plan of redemption for all of creation. Within that, individual salvation fits.
He then talks about why it's important in the here and now, in areas such as justice, art, and evangelism (are you getting a feel for why I'm passionate about this?). He's hard on all sides. Somehow Wright is one of the few people who can point out the faults of everyone specifically (moderns, you're doing this; postmoderns, you're doing this; liberals, you're doing this; conservatives, you're doing this) and still be liked by all parties. Personally, I'm a dispensationalist (which means, in my view, that Wright and I may disagree on some middle stuff, but we absolutely agree on the end, we absolutely agree that this end is the important part, and we absolutely agree on our present course of action). Wright's hard on dispensationalist (and for good reason). I will say that he has a generalized and limited view on dispensationalist. Maybe he understands more but for simplicity's sake boils it down. Maybe he only hear's the loudest dispensationalist (with whom I probably don't agree). But that's beside the point to me.
The point is, Jesus' resurrection leads to the resurrection (redemption) of the world, and somehow our participation in God's kingdom work in the present contributes to that (although it doesn't bring it about--God brings it about).
I recommend this book for a solid look at eschatology and its integral part to our daily theology.
Traditional Orthodoxy and Eschatology May 26, 2008
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
Surprised by Hope by Bishop N. T. Wright is a defense of the traditional eschatology of the mainstream church. Wright is quite eloquent and I always learn something when I read his books. This one is no exception. Here Wright journeys through the good, the bad, and the ugly landscape of current eschatology and compares it with his take on the beliefs of the early Christian believers. From time to time on this journey he ventures briefly onto more progressive roads-less-travelled, but (frustratingly for me!) he always retreats back into the safe haven of traditional orthodoxy. Wright does envision a future with hope - a hope based squarely in the resurrection of Christ - but he comes short of embracing the radical hope of a complete and ultimate cosmic renewal and unity in Christ, saying, "One cannot forever whistle 'There's a wideness in God's mercy' in the darkness of Hiroshima..." (p. 180). Those who still espouse that particular "wideness" will be disappointed by Wright's theory of hell: one in which sinners are stripped of their humanity and become "beings that were once human but now are not" who are "beyond hope" and "beyond pity" existing forever in "an ex-human state... no longer [exciting] in themselves or others the natural sympathy some feel even for the hardened criminal" (p. 182-183). This, despite the book's title, is not the kind of hope that entails the glorious vision of God as "all in all".
There are hints of Jurgen Moltmann in Wright's thoughts and concepts, but the hope which surprises him is not nearly as startling and comprehensive as that put forth by Moltmann. Consider this from Moltmann's The Coming of God: "True hope must be universal, because its healing future embraces every individual and the whole universe. If we were to surrender hope for as much as one single creature, for us God would not be God." (p. 132). The parts of the book that reflected Moltmann were the most enjoyable to me.
Let me also add that one of my concerns in this book is Wright's caricature of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. It is either a caricature or Wright does not fully understand Teilhard. Chardin comes across in this book as something of a secular progressive who was looking starry-eyed into a glorious future accomplished by a godless evolution alone. This is simply not what Teilhard taught or believed.
Having mentioned a couple of my concerns, let me happily say that there are some great concepts and paragraphs throughout the book - too many for me to quote here. But I will indulge you with one on the subject of what Wright calls collaborative eschatology: "Because the early Christians believed that resurrection had begun with Jesus and would be completed in the great final resurrection on the last day, they believed that God had called them to work with him, in the power of the Spirit, to implement the achievement of Jesus and thereby to anticipate the final resurrection, in personal and political life, in mission and holiness. It was not merely that God had inaugurated the 'end'; if Jesus, the Messiah, was the End in person, God's-future-arrived-in-the-present, then those who belonged to Jesus and followed him and were empowered by his Spirit were charged with transforming the present, as far as they were able, in light of that future" (Page 46).
My take on the book is that it is very well written, it is a joy to read, and it will be especially appreciated by those who want to see an outstanding apologetic on orthodox amillennialism from a perspective they may not have encountered before.
As an even more hopeful companion to this volume, I would highly recommend William H. Willimon's newest book, Who Will Be Saved? (ISBN-10: 0687651190).
A great read May 21, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Yet again, NT Wright has written a provocative, mind stretching book that awakens for me a much more realistic resurrection hope for the people of God. It is easily readable but still deeply rooted in firm biblical traditions. His linking heaven and the resurrection with the mission of the church on earth raises the earthy role of the church to dizzying heights. Wonderful! Refreshing! Missionally inspiring!
Resurrection Fuels Mission May 21, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This book can be summarized in three words: "Resurrection fuels mission." The resurrection of Jesus is the beginning of God's new creation, God's renewal of all things. Believers draw hope from this for their mission of establishing justice, nourishing beauty and declaring Jesus as Lord of all.
Wright's arguments will challenge people on the left and the right:
For the religious liberal who says the resurrection is an inspiring tale, Wright responds that without a bodily resurrection the event was useless because it had no connection to our world of space, time and matter.
For the religious conservative who tends toward a private pietism, Wright says God's program of new creation, anticipated in the resurrection of Jesus, prods believers to tireless effort in mending the present creation from the damage of injustice and sin.
My only critique is that toward the end the book felt like a movie that's a half an hour too long. But that's probably inevitable in tackling large topics--resurrection, mission, eschatology--in one volume.
More than any other I've read recently, this book is causing me to reflect on what the salvation Christians believe in is all about.
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