The subtitle is: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection and the Mission of the Church. By N.T. Wright.
Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church by N.T. WrightMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
When I told my (now deceased) Pastor that I was going to write a play on the Resurrection, he recommended any book by N.T. Wright. This one was at the top when I searched my library ebook collection. It took me three tries to read it, not because it's obtuse but because brain injury stole my reading, reading rehab by Lindamood-Bell gave it back, but I still need to practice daily so as to improve in order to absorb and comprehend complex concepts and books like this one.
First try, I read what I needed to for me to write my play. Second try, I read it front to back but without looking at the bible passages. Third try, I read most of the bible passages and the related pages; then I wrote out the big picture to see if I'd truly comprehended not just his main point but the entire book.
I'll start with why I gave it four stars instead of five: the structure. I think the structure impeded comprehension. Without my injury, I doubt it would've affected my reading, but I found it difficult to follow the logic of how this book is laid out. Writing a book begins with structure. Sometimes you work on it and work on it, and the final decision seems perfect -- until it's published, goes out into the wide world, and you begin to see a better way of developing your idea. I'm not sure what the best structure would've been, but certainly following an expected chronology would've helped.
Wright divides the book into three parts: Setting the Scene; God's Future Plan; and Hope in Practice: Resurrection and the Mission of the Church.
It felt to me like we were going back and forth in time, and I ended up being all twisted up. This did not aid memory.
However, the premise, the research, the concepts, the working out of what it all means -- was sound and highly intriguing. And yes, hopeful. Startlingly hopeful.
The problem we have today is that we've lost touch with what the Biblical writers meant when they said, "turn the other cheek" or "Gehenna." I learned the former from the book by the Linns, Don't Forgive Too Soon, and the latter in this book. The other problem is that over time, other philosophies have taken over what the early Christians believed. Wright tells us in the Preface his scholarship background and his lack of first-hand experience with death because he went more into the cathedral and scholarship side of the church than the pastoral and he's been lucky in the longevity of his own family. He explains from where this book arose.
And at the start he outlines two main questions.
As I read the book the first two times, I lost track of those two questions. Again, we go back to structure. When you begin a book with the statement of wanting to answer those two questions, they need to be in some way or other continually referenced in order to keep them top of the reader's mind.
What are we waiting for?
And what do we do in the meantime?
Wright explains the philosophies and doctrines of the dominant cultures before and at Jesus's time. He makes it clear that no one believed people rose from the dead. The dead remained dead. He explains Plato's ideas in order to show how they influenced our modern-day concept of heaven. He tackles the concept of progress and why progress does not ultimately answer the problem of suffering, redemption, salvation. And why it doesn't provide hope.
He looks at the current view of heaven, by Christians and by the wider world, and he then goes on to show how it's divorced from what Jesus and the apostles and early Christians taught and understood. This part is quite revolutionary, really. I knew the resurrection is to be a bodily one, but it had remained a mystery on how it intersected with the heaven we're all taught about. For me, Wright's leading the reader through what happened, the four strange aspects of Easter, what the early Christians believed it meant, the ascension, and the second coming -- was like an ah-ha moment. Everything fell into place. Wright several times emphasized that resurrection is life after life after death. That opened up possibilities that simply going to heaven does not. Vindication also suddenly made sense in a way that it had never done before.
The problem with the current concept of heaven is that vindication happens in the spirit realm whereas the original wound happens in the spiritual and physical realm of life here on Earth. For me, that didn't equal real vindication. No one really has to own up to nor face what they've done in the same body, or the same kind of body, in which they did it. Vindication that heals happens when the person can't escape the physical experience of accountability and ownership. For me that was the big hope. Suffering has an answer, not just a pat-on-the-head one, but a real one.
Wright reviews the concept the Rapture (in my opinion, those who extol an idea of Rapture skipped the part where Jesus sends us out into the world and warns us it won't be pretty -- we are part of God's salvation plan -- where God is, where Jesus goes, we're supposed to follow). He also reviews the Ascension, the Second Coming, and hell as it was understood back then and contrasts that with the current concept. I wasn't entirely convinced about his assumptions about what happens to those who are raised to judgement; they seemed to be more in line with current ideas of hell than what Jesus taught. Even those who know much get caught up in the clutches of our culture's certainty about heaven and hell.
His answer to his question about what we do in the meantime wasn't radical for me because I'm half Zoroastrian. Zoroastrians are taught to work hand-in-hand with God. I'd always interpreted the scriptures through that lens, and I was heartened to see how Wright argued for that. However, his why behind it intrigued me. It isn't just to make a better Earth. You'll have to read his book to discover his reasoning and how it can completely alter your sense of your worth.
Ultimately, for me, the source of hope came from vindication in a transformed physical form and that we are essential to God (for the reasons Wright outlines). This isn't some empty words about how you matter, how God loves you, and all that. This is about a concrete plan we're all waiting to see fulfilled AND that every human being is part of. Wright takes this idea of God's love out of the sentimental into real life, a real future.
When I was reading the four Gospels and the essential parts of this book for my play, I began to realize the Resurrection is not as simplistic as is preached during Easter. It made writing my play challenging -- chronology was a bitch -- but it infused the Resurrection with a hope that had not existed before. Hence, Wright's title. A must read.
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