I loved this book! Wished I had been able to have available its concepts and pointers back when I began my ministry, some 35 years ago. But then, I did (and still) have the Gospels available to me, and the rest of Scripture. What will I now do with, I believe, this fuller revelation and teaching that helps put breadth and depth to my understanding of what God has done, in Israel, in Christ - and continues to to do today through His People?
From the Amazon review(s) of the book - 'How God Became King: The Forgotten Story of the Gospels' . . .
"Western Christians today think "that Jesus came to teach people how to go to heaven. That is, I believe" says Wright, "a major and serious misunderstanding." Wright claims: "We have belittled the cross, imagining it merely as a mechanism for getting us off the hook ... It is much, much more. It is the moment when the story of Israel reaches its climax; the moment when, at last, the watchmen on Jerusalem's walls see their God coming in his kingdom; the moment when the people of God are renewed so as to be, at last, the royal priesthood who will take over the world, not with the love of power but with the power of love; the moment when the kingdom of God overcomes the kingdoms of the world. ... God ... is now inviting us to ... build with him ... This is the vision the evangelists offer us as they bring together the kingdom and the cross." (Ch.10)
"The four gospels leave us with the primary application of the cross not in abstract preaching about 'how to have your sins forgiven' or 'how to go to heaven' but in an agenda in which the forgiven people are put to work, addressing the evils of the world in the light of the victory of Calvary." (Ch.10) "Jesus himself is ... at the heart of the new creation ... on the move, as Jesus' people go out, in the energy of the Spirit, to be the dwelling of God in each place, to anticipate that eventual promise [of the whole earth being filled with the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea] by their common and cross-shaped life and work." (Ch. 10) Such 'life and work' is not the subject of this book, and needs further exploration.
In his previous book After You Believe: Why Christian Character Matters (2010), Wright comments that Christian character should reflect "God's image once more into the world - the image of the generous, loving creator filling his world with beauty, order, freedom, and glory ... seeking, generating and sustaining justice and beauty in a world where both have been at a discount for too long." (p. 231) However, Wright acknowledges that "This is a large topic, in need of much fuller exploration than we can give it here" (p. 231).
In Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church (2008) Wright identifies 'justice' (pp 213 - 222) and 'beauty' (pp 222 - 225) as important areas in which "to work for God's kingdom in the present" (p. 207). Wright asserts that God is redeeming the world of space, time and matter, not discarding it. He states: "... the church ... must... claim [the world of space, time and matter] for the kingdom of God, for the lordship of Jesus, and in the power of the Spirit so that we can then go out and work for that kingdom, announce that lordship, and effect change through that power." (p. 264) "The mission of the church must therefore include, at a structural level, the recognition that our space, time and matter are all subject not to rejection but to redemption." (p. 264) "If it is true, as I have argued," says Wright, "that the whole world is now God's holy land, we must not rest as long as that land is spoiled and defaced. This is not an extra to the church's mission. It is central." (pp. 266) For Wright `mission' includes, for example, addressing "massive economic imbalance" and "Third World debt", politics, art, music, sculpture, poetry, architecture, town planning, transportation, agriculture, "proper use of resources" etc., areas of our 'life and work' through which Jesus is reclaiming and ruling his world (pp 216, 223, 265-266)
