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Have you heard of N.T. Wright? You know, one of the leading New Testament scholars in the world. Yeah, that N.T. Wright. The former Bishop of Durham in the Church of England. He now serves as the Chair of New Testament and Early Christianity at the School of Divinity at the University of St. Andrews. For twenty years he taught New Testament studies at Cambridge, McGill and Oxford Universities. As being both one of the world’s leading Bible scholars and a popular author, he has been featured on ABC News, Dateline, The Colbert Report, and Fresh Air.

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Out of his own commitment to both historical scholarship and Christian ministry, Wright challenges us to roll up our sleeves and take seriously the study of the historical Jesus. He writes, “Many Christians have been, frankly, sloppy in their thinking and talking about Jesus, and hence, sadly, in their praying and in their practice of discipleship. We cannot assume that by saying the word Jesus, still less the word Christ, we are automatically in touch with the real Jesus who walked and talked in first-century Palestine. . . . Only by hard, historical work can we move toward a fuller comprehension of what the Gospels themselves were trying to say.” The Challenge of Jesus poses a double-edged challenge: to grow in our understanding of the historical Jesus within the Palestinian world of the first century, and to follow Jesus more faithfully into the postmodern world of the twenty-first century. – From the Publisher

Some things discussed on the show…

…associating Reformed theology with people like John Piper, Tim Keller, and others with similar theology, and that sometimes causes confusion to know that Wright sees much of his own views in line with reformed tradition, when it seems like his tone is much different that those people just mentioned.

…how do we know that God intended for his authority to be given through scripture. In other words how do we know that some day we’re not going to stand before God with him saying
‘Hey the Bible was just words that were written several thousands years ago by people who were just describing their experiences with me the best they can but it wasn’t suppose to be anything more to you than inspirational and a lose guide’ ?

….in the new introduction The Challenge of Jesus, Wright spent some time talking about the idea that he originally wrote TCoJ on the other side Sept 11, 2001. In what ways Wright thinks that changes our perspective on the words he wrote in TCoJ?

…what view the reformation brought of Jesus that was a change from the old view.

…what view the enlightenment brought.

…the historocity of Jesus and how the oral tradition worked.

…the parable of the sower in Mark 4:1-20. What we usually miss by not paying attention to Jesus’ Jewish roots.

…how all of this relates to the Christian task and vision today.

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