The Challenge of Jesus: Rediscovering Who Jesus Was and Is - Softcover

Wright, N. T.

4.14

2,900 ratings by Goodreads

9780830836963: The Challenge of Jesus: Rediscovering Who Jesus Was and Is

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0830836969 ISBN 13: 9780830836963

Publisher: IVP, 2015

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Today a renewed and vigorous scholarly quest for the historical Jesus is underway. In the midst of well-publicized and controversial books on Jesus, N. T. Wright's lectures and writings have been widely recognized for providing a fresh, provocative and historically credible portrait. Now this paperback edition of Wright's classic work contains the same original content plus even more insight with an all-new introduction by the author. 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 centur

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Review:

"We cannot assume that by saying the word Jesus," writes NT Wright--Canon Theologian of Westminster Abbey and formerly Dean of Lichfield Cathedral--"still less the word Christ, we are automatically in touch with the real Jesus who talked in first-century Palestine." Even less are we automatically in touch with "the Jesus who is the same yesterday, today and forever." Wright's goal in this volume is to present in a simplified form the findings that are occupying him in his monumental six volume series entitled Christian Origins and the Question of God, and in particular in the second volume, already published, Jesus and the Victory of God. Distinguishing himself from the "Jesus Seminar" theologians, who question the literalness of the resurrection (among other things), Wright affirms the absolute centrality of both the Last Supper and the Easter experience as historical events. Through these experiences with Jesus, Wright suggests, the early Christians came to see that "Jesus--and then, very quickly, Jesus' people--were now the true Temple, and the actual building in Jerusalem was thereby redundant."

Written with refreshing clarity and passion, The Challenge of Jesus serves as an excellent introduction to the thinking of this influential New Testament historian. --Doug Thorpe

Review:

"Wright has produced a work of frankly evangelical faith with strong historical integrity, because both are necessary for serious study, uncomfortable as that may be. . . . A refreshing and inspiring read for those who take both conservative faith and historical scholarship seriously. Recommended for academic and public libraries."--Library Journal, January 2000

"This superb addition to Wright's oeuvre will prove fruitful reading for neophytes as well as for those already familiar with his approach."--Publishers Weekly

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