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Edwards his pulpit. Edwards became concerned that people werejoining churches without any heartfelt conversion experience. Whenhe insisted on that as a condition for church membership, hiscongregation turned against him. Part of the problem was whatMarsden called Edwards's "brittle, unsociable personality."

His sacramental views were also a source of alienation. Hesaid that only true believers should receive communion, becauseothers made a mockery of the sacrament. Those who tookcommunion without true faith were sealing their own damnation.People who were not true believers, according to his definition, couldnot have their children baptized. Finally, the congregation hadenough and voted Edwards out.

He moved on to an Indian mission and, finally, became thepresident of Princeton, although he did not live long after thatappointment. His life came to a sad end. Having once been lovedand appreciated by his congregation, his rigidity and refusal to face

the realities of human nature did him in. There is a lesson there forall pastors.

William O. PaulsellLexington TheologicalSeminary

Lexington, Kentucky

The Resurrection of the Son ofGod. By N. T. Wright. Minneapolis:Fortress, 2003. xxi + 817 pp. $39.00.

The Resurrection ofthe Son of Godis the third volume in N.T. Wright's magisterial series on Christian Origins and the Questionof God. It turns out to be a detour from the original project, yet this"untimely born" volume may be Wright's boldest creation yet in theseries. Its sheer bulk is designed to supports its audacious claim: that

it is historically "highly probable" that Jesus of Nazareth was raisedbodily from the dead.

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of the book, the first four (over 700 pages) are devoted to siftingthrough this evidence.The development of Wright's historical case includes three

crucial steps. The first is definitional and occupies parts one throughfour. A virtually exhaustive exposition of the data pertaining toresurrection throughout the Classical and Hellenistic worlds, theScriptures, and across the ante-Nicene Christian centuries establishesconclusively that "resurrection" was understood in corporeal terms.

The common notion among modern scholars that Jesus arose invisiblyand spiritually ought now to be buried, never more to rise again, inthe face of the evidence marshaled by Wright. A second, correlativestep involves the fact that the hope of resurrection became central tothe Christian faith, and was grounded in the belief that it had beenconcretely inaugurated in Jesus' resurrection. The argumentativepoint drawn out by Wright is that a messianic pretender who had beenexecuted by the Romans could not be credibly hailed as Messiah and

universal Lord; and it will not do to say that these designationsoriginated from visionary revelations of Jesus. Least of all would ithave been possible for ancients to confuse hallucinations or warmspiritual experiences with the belief that Jesus had been resurrected.Thus, thirdly, in part five Wright contends that the empty tomb andthe post-resurrection appearances together constitute the sufficient andnecessary condition for the rise of early Christian belief. Alternativetheories simply do not possess the same explanatory power or

historical plausibility.This work is a formidable defense of the historicity of Jesus'

bodily resurrection. It will serve as a benchmark in resurrectionstudies for decades to come. Wright's characteristic color and clarity,for one, make it a pleasure to read, which cannot often be said ofponderous volumes. So pastors, students of theology, as well asscholars (and perhaps highly interested laypersons) can profit from it.The apologetic, and at times polemical, edge to this work makes it all

the more interesting, in addition to challenging and strengthening:challenging to those who are inimical to the resurrection of Jesus, and

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