173. n. t. wright, res. of son of god- review

7/30/2019 173. N. T. Wright, Res. of Son of God- Review

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his head to Barak was a dramatic survival strategy. This preacher tells the story ofJephthah, and sets another story alongsidethe story of a father in Bosnia whosaved his daughter's life by running through a rain of bulletsthat is a corrective

to the Biblical account. Jeter sees Samson as a counter-example: when confronted with the possibility of extracting revenge, sometimes we need to walk away.

The sermons are sensitive, penetrating, and ethically compelling. I am awed bythe depth of Jeter's use of history and literature, from ancient to contemporary,by his unerring sense for just the right quote, and by the ways he gets the sermons under my skin. "At what point . . . do we hold up our Bibles and say, 'Thisis the word of God?' Or perhaps, This text flies in the fact of God's word?"' Ihave read everything Jeter has published (and heard dozens of his sermons ontape), and go on record: this material is in a class by itself. The literature ofpreaching has nothing else like it.

Preaching Judges could become the basis of a series of sermons on charactersor events in Judges. It could also be used as a centerpiece in a class on preaching from Judges, or as a reading in classes in biblical exegesis of Judges.

Ronald J. Allen

N. T. Wright, The Resurrection of the Son of God. Christian Origins and the Question ofGod, Vol. III. Fortress, 2003.

T

he extreme size of this volume (817 pages) should not put preachers off.

Wright is an extremely clear writer, and equally important, the subject lies atthe heart of the Christian faith. In spite of the fact that resurrection has been

marginalized and even effectively eliminated from the active faith of manyChristians through reinterpretation, it was grounded in and gave power to anentire world view that stood over against the reigning world views of the time. Ithas the potential for continuing to fuel the Christian drive for justice and worldpeace today.

Wright tests and ultimately refutes the view widely held by New Testamentscholars that the earliest Christians did not believe that Jesus rose bodily from thedead but rather held some kind of "spiritual" view witnessed to by the letters ofPaul (xvii). He begins with a comprehensive account of views of life beyonddeath in the non-Jewish world. Then he turns to "Death and Beyond in the OldTestament" and to "Hope Beyond Death in Post-Biblical Judaism." In theChristian sect, resurrection moved to the heart of its Jewish theology and gave amighty creative twist to its entire life and vision. It was not merely about life afterdeath. It was about the new life of the new age inaugurated by Jesus' resurrection. The believer has a share in this resurrection already in this body throughthe transforming presence of the Spirit. When the new age of God's reign breaksin upon the world in its fullness, the believer will have a share in the resurrec

tion in a transformed body.Wright next examines the letters of Paul, eventually turning to the Gospels

t f th E t N ti t th N T t t iti d th t


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28 ! Homiletic

Wright then takes up the impact of faith in Jesus' resurrection on the life ofChristians in the world. It both vindicated and rendered effective for believersJesus' role as Messiah of Israel and Lord of the whole world. Risen from the

dead, a new age had begun which would in time include the resurrection of allbelievers. In the meantime resurrection gained the extended meaning of endowing believers with a new power for living that triumphed over the powers overevil, sin, and death. For the Christian sect of Jews, this extended meaningbecame embodied in baptism and in holiness of life. Living under the messi-ahship and lordship of Jesus did not integrate well, however, with being a goodcitizen of the Roman empire. Caesar's rule was a rule of institutionalized sin anddeath. Because Caesar claimed lordship over the world, faith in Jesus as lord ofthe world put Christians on a collision course with Caesar.

Wright turns at long last to the Easter narratives in the New Testament Gospelsto pursue the question whether the stories refer to actual events and whetherthere is any evidence that they were created to support a belief the earlyChristians already held. Engaging both the texts and scholarly proposals concerning this, Wright makes a strong case in favor of the view that the early Christiansthemselves understood Jesus' resurrection as an actual event and against the proposal that the stories were created to support a prior conviction. In the courseof making this case, Wright leads the reader through these oft-read narratives,calling attention to features preachers may well have overlooked in the past. Onpages 599-615, he describes and assesses surprising features such as the lack of

references to the Hebrew Scriptures, contrasting sharply with early Christianbelief that the resurrection of Jesus was "according to the scriptures."

After this general description, Wright turns to each Gospel to assess the features peculiar to each one. The biggest issue in relation to Mark is the scholarlyproposal that Mark's story of the empty tomb is a mid-first century invention toexplain the innovative idea that Jesus was raised bodily. In the mind of manyscholars, this view contrasts with the view of Paul who, they believe, knew nothing of an empty tomb. Wright argues that it is faulty to conclude from Paul's failure to mention the empty tomb explicitly that he knew nothing of it. When a

person spoke or heard about a resurrection in either the Jewish or the paganworld, it went without saying that the tomb was left empty (321). Thus theempty tomb cannot be a later invention. Besides tackling this big issue, Wrightcalls our attention to a number of special features of Mark's narrative such as thefact that it is told from the perspective of the women; that the empty tomb doesnot confirm the belief that Jesus arose but constitutes a great puzzle; and thatMark's resurrection narrative is held to Mark's passion narrative by the womanwho earlier already anointed his body for burial and by the two Mary's andSalome who remain at the cross and watch his body being laid in the tomb.While Wright's special interest is the significance of these features for the

Evangelist's view of the resurrection, his enumeration will increase the preacher'sappreciation of just how rich each of these stories is in resources for homiletic


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tions that for the early Christians themselves bodily resurrection was a way oftalking about an experience of conversion or a "faith-motivated experience inresponse to an eschatological disclosure" (Schillebeeckx). In the literature, an

encounter with the resurrected Jesus was the basis of their faith, not a product ofit, since it ran counter to their expectations. So a very significant proportion ofearly Christians believed that Jesus' resurrection was an actual event within theirworld of space and time and matter.

Wright establishes the significance of the two most fundamental claims of theearly Christians, that the tomb was empty and that Jesus' followers encounteredhim alive. These two claims he assesses from the standpoint of whether they provide both necessary and sufficient conditions for the claim that Jesus did indeedrise from the dead. He concludes that to have an empty tomb without appear

ances would be a puzzle and to have appearances without an empty tombwould put them in the category of visions or hallucination. Together, and onlytogether, do they constitute a sufficient condition for Jesus' resurrection as an historical occurrence.

The author also considers the material connection between belief in a bodilyresurrection and the way the early Christians lived their faith. Here we return tothe larger hope of Jews, modulated by Christian Jews, of which bodily resurrection was a product. The resurrection of Jesus has had many meanings derivedfrom contexts other than that of the early Christians. These include everythingfrom a validation of a supernatural view of the world and a belief in life after

death to the accusation that such an event, if it had occurred, would be the workof an omnipotent tyrant playing favorites with Jesus. For the earliest Christians,however, it meant first that in Jesus Israel's messianic hope had been fulfilled, butin a way not anticipated.

The consequence of all this is that "History matters because human beingsmatter; human beings matter because creation matters; creation matters becausethe creator matters. And the creator . . . grieves so much over creation gonewrong, over humankind in rebellion, over thorns and thistles and dust and death,that he planned from the beginning the way by which he would rescue his

world, his creation, his history, from its tragic corruption and decay; the way,therefore, by which he would rescue his image-bearing creatures, the muddledand rebellious human beings, from their doubly tragic fate, the way, therefore, bywhich he would be most truly himself, would become most truly himself. Thestory of Jesus of Nazareth . . . offers itself, as Jesus himself had offered his publicwork and words, his body and blood, as the answer to this multiple problem:the arrival of God's kingdom precisely in the world of space, time and matter, theworld of injustice and tyranny, of empire and crucifixions. This world is wherethe kingdom must come, on earth as it is in heaven." (737)

Adam Gilbert BartholomewCincinnati, OH


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173. n. t. wright, res. of son of god- review

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