The New Testament and the People of God (Christian Origins and the Question of God, Vol 1)

Rating:
Summary: A challenging and engaging work.
Review: This is a general review of not just this book, but many of Wright's books which seem to carry an underlying anti-Jewish bent throughout. After reading Douglas Harink's Paul among the Postliberals and Kendall Soulen's The God of Israel and Christian Theology, I read this series both in wonder and pain. I have great and deep respect for what Wright has "gotten" right and accomplished in his writings, yet how did he miss the mark on physical Israel, A New Testament people of God as well? Studies by Markus Barth, Yoder, W.D. Davies, etc. offer a good counter-balance. Jews should not abandon their covenantal identity or ancestry. Israel still remains elect and in a special relationship with God through which Gentiles have been engrafted. How this can be accomplished if the church applies Wright's views remains to be seen. Wright seems to expropriate, when he should appropriate, the name Israel to itself. Overall, Wright is a first class scholar and a gifted treasure the Church has been blessed with. Aside from any criticism, he offered more thought, page for page, then what I had encountered in most evangelical or liberal New Testament studies. A worhty book, well worth the price of admission.

Rating:
Summary: Wright is one of the best.
Review: We often believe, whether or not we would admit it, that deeply committed Christians can not be serious scholars. Wright is a deeply committed Christian and not only a serious scholar, but a premier one. I have enjoyed several of his shorter works. I hesitated to read this one only because of its depth and length. I wish I had not waited so long. While worth the wait, no one can afford to delay this treasure.

Rating:
Summary: Wright is one of the best.
Review: We often believe, whether or not we would admit it, that deeply committed Christians can not be serious scholars. Wright is a deeply committed Christian and not only a serious scholar, but a premier one. I have enjoyed several of his shorter works. I hesitated to read this one only because of its depth and length. I wish I had not waited so long. While worth the wait, no one can afford to delay this treasure.

Rating:
Summary: An excellent account of the Jewish origins of Christianity
Review: Wright has written a thorough, if at times wordy, account of the Jewish background and culture in which Jesus and Christianity were born. His focus is on " 2cd temple Judaism ", being the period from the Maccabean revolt to the Bar Kochba revolt. His argument is that Jesus and early Christianity cannot be fully grasped unless the underlying "Judaisms" and the Jewish story is understood. The research exhibited is stunning in its completeness.The style is sometimes excessively wordy and a background in history, theology, or New Testament studies, would be helpfull. This is a shame in as much as the more readable Bishop Spong, and members of the Jesus Seminar, who don't demonstrate nearly the scholarship of Wright will continue to be more widely read