N.T. “Tom” Wright is one of my favorite authors. This is a great video where he tackles a common conspiracy theory that attempts to undermine the historicity of the gospels. Enjoy!
N.T. “Tom” Wright is one of my favorite authors. This is a great video where he tackles a common conspiracy theory that attempts to undermine the historicity of the gospels. Enjoy!
6 Comments
Great video! What a great thinker. I have been wanting to dive into one of his books. What would you suggest a young student like myself should read first?
I would begin with The Challenge of Jesus. It will give you a good introduction to Wright’s historical approach to Jesus and the gospels. There’s some hard rowing at the beginning, as he spends some time introducing you to some academic conversations regarding the historical search for Jesus. Any time you’re first exposed to information that you don’t have a point of reference for, it can be hard. Press through those first couple of chapters and you’ll strike gold.
4 things:
1. If ever I make a video involving biblical commentary, I am definitely using an old guy with a british accent. It just sounds so much more astute.
2. Interesting what he says starting at 5:28 about America and our anti-established church leanings.
3. He’s spot on with his critique of Gnosticism and the enlightenment. I tend to think there is always a common thread linked to the serpents first distortion in Gen 3…. be your own god. This really leads into your subsequent post involving a believers need to understand the metanarrative, or sweeping passages of scripture as you put it.
4. Someone should send this to Joel Osteen
1. I may go ahead and begin faking the accent myself, like Ross in “Friends”.
2. Yes. He tends to make broad sweeping statements about the church in America. This is the same mistake he criticizes when we make broad sweeping statements about 2nd Temple Judaism, as if it were a monolith.
3. Yes.
4. You know, we recently hosted a group of pastors from various large and influential churches across America. Included was a pastor from Driscoll’s church and one from Osteen’s. They got along just great. I think they were surprised how much they shared in common.
Do you think that The Challenge of Jesus would be a good book for an ex-Christian agnostic to read? He’s read alot of the agnostic writings about the historical Jesus. He’s hung up on the resurrection primarily.
It would be a good start, for sure!