Scripture and the Authority of God, N. T. Wright

"In Scripture and the Authority of God, Tom Wright argues that God is the ultimate source of all authority, and that God's authority is not primarily about providing the right answers to disputed questions, but about God's sovereign, saving purposes being declared and accomplished through Jesus and the Spirit. This revised and expanded edition includes two helpful case studies, looking at what it means to keep Sabbath and at how Christians can defend martial monogamy. These studies not only offer bold biblical insights but also demonstrate the indispensable role of scripture as the primary resource for teaching and guidance in the Christian life."







N. T (or Tom) Wright is a theologian of the kind that I enjoy most; that being, one for whom a sentence is only truly formed at the point where all interest is lost, and, in some cases, the actual intention of the original thought has seemingly disappeared into a miasmic indifference to the Orwellian rule that less is, often, more, and never more so than in consideration of, and regards to, the length, construction, ordering and punctuation of a sentence of importance.

His books can be a slog, therefore, although he does a nice line in being less repetitive than he could be, largely by recommending you go and understand his point in depth by reading another of his books. This normally means that to grasp a single book's true intent you need a companion or two from the backlist, but generally Scripture and the Authority of God stands alone and holds its central claim in a single volume.

It's a nice, theologically rich double to Claiborne's 'Irresistible Revolution', a call back to 'authoritative' readings of the Bible not as we wish it to be but as it was intended and means. Doubling up as an effective history of church thought on the subject, as well as acidic skewering of the problems of secular interpretations of God's political agenda.

All of which makes it sound pretty dull, which is unfair because in truth it's an engagingly easy read. Knocking off at 160 pages or so, it's a primer rather than the last word, but has enough in it to pique the interest and entice you to read all the other books on the same subject he's also written.

Also Try:

N. T. Wright, Surprised by Hope

Shane Claiborne, the Irresistible Revolution

Tullian Tchividjian, Jesus + Nothing = Everything