Power, Creation and Truth: The Gospel in a World of Cultural Confusion, Tom Wright

"In Creation, Power and Truth, Tom Wright invites readers to consider the crucial ways in which the Christian gospel challenges and subverts the intellectual, moral and political values that pervade contemporary culture. In doing so, he asks searching questions about three defining characteristics of our time: neo-gnosticism, neo-imperialism and postmodernity. Employing a robust Trinitarian framework, Wright looks afresh at key elements of the biblical story while drawing out new and unexpected connections between ancient and modern world-views. The result is a vigorous critique of common cultural assumptions and controlling narratives, past and present, and a compelling read for all who want to hear, speak and live the gospel of Christ in a world of cultural confusion."







This was, like everything by Wright, really really good, a three fold exploration of what it means to be a Christian living in modern post-enlightenment society. Between this and his other books there's loads that he's written on the idea, and all of them are well worth reading, but this is probably a good introductory primer to his key views; that post-modernism and enlightenment have left us with key assumptions about the language of science, faith, politics and culture that determine how we think about these ideas and give us an inaccurate and dangerous view of what the early church and scripture means.

There are some bits which are excellent and there is much which he has put better elsewhere. This is a book that specifically addresses post-modernism and the enlightenment in the way it affects our politics and faith, and this is probably the best reason to pick it up, as it's an interesting and stimulating critique of the foundational principles of modern liberalism, conservatism and the philosophical underpinnings of the West.

Also Try:
N. T. Wright, anything else
Faith and Roger Forster, Women and the Kingdom
C. S. Lewis, Screwtape Letters

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