"The Challenge of Jesus"

After several weeks of reading and pondering and note-taking, I've finally finished N.T. Wright's "The Challenge of Jesus." The book comes from the Third Quest for the Historical Jesus, and Wright is remarkable in the sense that he is one of the few historians and scholars who really probes into Jesus and the early church historically while remaining staunchly conservative. Most scholars on the hunt for "the historical Jesus" are what one would call liberal; one of the biggest men of the movement, Dominic Crossan, states that Jesus was probably left on the cross and devoured by wild dogs. Crossan has a lot to say about the nature of ancient Judaism and all that, but where he fails, Wright delivers. I'm not just saying this because (1) I'm a Christian and (2) I am a conservative rather than liberal Christian. I say it because Wright wrestles with the information and with history and is honest about areas of ambiguity and doesn't call down fire and brimstone upon his opponents. He is a great historian and he backs up his material very well.

Wright paints a portrait of Jesus that is most often lost in current evangelicalism. He spends a considerable amount of time in the book examining the state of Israel in Jesus' day, paying specific attention to the religious-cultural atmosphere, the adamant hoping and praying of the Jews for "The Day of YHWH": when YHWH would return to Zion, to judge and to save, vindicating Israel and judging the pagan beasts of Daniel 7. Within this framework, Wright shows how Jesus is Messiah and how he accomplishes what the Jews were hoping for, though in a way they didn't quite expect (most of the book focuses on Jesus' "earthly ministry"--that of a prophet announcing the kingdom of God and denouncing Israel for her failure to embody the light of the world--and Wright doesn't spend much time elaborating on the eschatological ramifications of the cross; his book "Paul in Fresh Perspectives" does this). The majority of the book, with this as the backdrop, is about Jesus' proposing a modus vivendi (a new way of living), his condemnation upon the Temple, and upon his prophetic and dire warnings regarding the future fall of Jerusalem if the Jews failed to repent (i.e. turn from ways of violence to ways of peace; instead of being zealots, embracing the call of Jesus to be sufferers and healers; this is what is found in The Sermon on the Mount]). He also writes a lot about how Israel is redefined Jesus, and while he doesn't explicitly deal with the topic, he hints at how the church is the New Israel, fulfilling the vocation of Israel in Christ. Also, he looks at how "salvation is of the Jews" and what this means. The last three chapters deal with the resurrection of Christ (he argues for its historicity via the emergence of the early church, and his argument goes deeper than what you find in most Christian apologetics) and how that is the backbone, the foundation, and the modus operandi of the new children of God relocated in Christ. He says a lot about the Christian vocation, and I'll add a quote from him here in the next week or two.

Overall, it's a very complicated book, and it took me a while to read through it. The brief summary I gave above doesn't do justice. I could go chapter-by-chapter illuminating some of the things Wright says, but I don't really feel like doing it because I'm lazy. I'm already into the second chapter of "Paul in Fresh Perspective" and am enjoying it immensely (despite having read it two or three times before). My journey into the world and writings of N.T. Wright continues full-steam ahead.