Surprised by Hope
Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church
-
- 9,99 €
Beschreibung des Verlags
If you died tonight, do you know where you would go? Most Christians would answer this question incorrectly.
In Surprised by Hope, New Testament scholar N.T. Wright explains that nearly all Christians are wrong when it comes to life after death. Wright, author of the modern classic Simply Christian, explains that according to the Scriptures, all souls go to an interim afterlife to await resurrection upon the second coming of Christ. Wright argues that this makes a fundamental difference in how we should live our lives; we should not merely wait to go to heaven, but instead actively work towards creating a heaven on earth. This fascinating and informative book is perfect for anyone interested in the meaning of life – not only after death but, beforehand as well.
N. T. Wright is Bishop of Durham for the Church of England. He is one of today’s leading theologians and author of Jesus and the Victory of God. He has been featured on “ABC News,” “Dateline,” and “Fresh Air.” He taught New Testament studies for twenty years at Cambridge, McGill and Oxford Universities. Among his many published works are Simply Christian, The Challenge of Jesus, The Meaning of Jesus (co-authored with Marcus Borg), and What Saint Paul Really Said.
“N. T. “Tom” Wright is one of the most formidable figures in the world of Christian thought.”– TIME
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Wright, one of the greatest, and certainly most prolific, Bible scholars in the world, will touch a nerve with this book. What happens when we die? How should we think about heaven, hell, purgatory and eternal life? Wright critiques the views of heaven that have become regnant in Western culture, especially the assumption of the continuance of the soul after death in a sort of blissful non-bodily existence. This is simply not Christian teaching, Wright insists. The New Testament's clear witness is to the resurrection of the body, not the migration of the soul. And not right away, but only when Jesus returns in judgment and glory. The "paradise," the experience of being "with Christ" spoken of occasionally in the scriptures, is a period of waiting for this return. But Christian teaching of life after death should really be an emphasis on "life after life after death"-the resurrection of the body, which is also the ground for all faithful political action, as the last part of this book argues. Wright's prose is as accessible as it is learned-an increasingly rare combination. No one can doubt his erudition or the greatness of the churchmanship of the Anglican Bishop of Durham. One wonders, however, at the regular citation of his own previous work. And no other scholar can get away so cleanly with continuing to propagate the "hellenization thesis," by which the early church is eventually polluted by contaminating Greek philosophical influence.
