Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church

N. T. Wright, retired Anglican bishop of Durham, is one of the leading theologians in any Christian communion; unlike so many academics, he has throughout his career spoke and written to the rest of us, the ordinary Christians in the pews, so that we could better understand the faith we professed to believe in. I am not a theologian, and I will admit that I worked a bit at understanding some of the ideas in this book. Actually, Surprised by Hope is a shortened, simplified version of one of his earlier works. Anyone who is serious about her or his Christian faith should read this book and try to understand it, whether or not he or she accepts various parts of it. This book is shaped by two questions about death and life after death: what are we waiting for, and what do we do about it in the meantime? We are waiting for and hope to go to heaven, but what is heaven? We all believe in heaven, but, put very simply, Wright argues that most Christians don't believe in bodily resurrection, and even if they do, they don't understand what the scriptures say about it. As for the hope of the title, Wright has a lot of it, not just for the next world, but for this one, now. According to Wright, muddled and misguided thinking about life after death leads to mistakes and problems in our liturgies, practice, and our mission in the world. He lays out the arguments for what he refers to as "life after life after death" and how that connects to what we should be doing now, today, in this world to advance the kingdom of heaven. Wright argues that Jesus' resurrection actually inaugurated the kingdom of heaven, and he makes his case for what he thinks that should mean for us, individually and collectively, and for the church, and for our relationship to the world. I think this book is particularly important for three reasons. First, it challenges every Christian to take the Greatest Commandment and the Great Commission much more seriously than we ever have before, and shows how completely unbiblical is the "end times" interpretation of the New Testament and everything that flows from it. Second, it demonstrates in language almost everyone can understand just how and how much Greek philosophy from the ancient world and its later descendents such as that of the Medieval, Renaissance, Enlightenment, and Modern eras, mostly unconsciously, have led Christians to believe totally unbiblical, unchristian ideas on fundamental things such as the goodness of creation and bodily resurrection. Third, I think Wright makes a more-than-compelling argument for a joyous, Spirit-filled engagement with this world today, in the here and now, as we look to that "life after life after death." He doesn't do this lightly, or from an "ivory tower." As bishop of Durham he knows what the world is like today for the people in the pews in his diocese; as a serious Christian who has been all over the world and knows this present world all too well, he knows what we're up against. But as a committed Christian, he knows who we're standing with, and what resources we have at our disposal. And there is so much more here. I may buy this book in hardback some day, but I'm glad I have it on my Kindle now. I hope a lot of people buy it, and that it leads more people to Wright's voluminous other writings, popular and scholarly. I love the title, because, aren't we often surprised by hope, and don't we need more hope always as we go through this life? N. T. Wright gives us great encouragement to work today, in this world and this life, to lay the groundwork for a blessed life after life after death.

Surprised by Hope - Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection and the Mission of the Church by N.T. Wright I grabbed this book as I was heading for another country recently for a funeral. I saw that it was related to death, heaven, the resurrection and hope. It had been referred by several people to me but was I in for an unexpected read and another great one by N.T. Wright, the Bishop of Durham. This book is not so much about dying as it is about living. This book is not so much about death as it is about the resurrection of Jesus and his transformed body after death and what that means for us now and in the future. This book is not so much about heaven after you die but what does life look like before you die. It is about God's Kingdom coming now and in the future. This is a book about Easter and the new creation, the touching of heaven and earth that has begun through the resurrection and ascension of Jesus and what that means for the future of the world. Bishop Wright spends quite a bit of time looking at the second coming of Jesus and the implications that his appearing has upon politics, economics, the world of the poor, His church, etc. If God called his creation good, what does that mean for this earth and for the world. If Jesus is coming as judge, to right all wrongs and give new life to the dead, what will the future resurrection and hope mean for us as his people? As one who has given his life to God in service of the poor for the last 35 years, I was deeply, encouraged on page 191/192 when he wrote because of the resurrection "that a proper grasp of the (surprising) future hope held out to us in Jesus Christ leads directly and, surprisingly, to a vision of the present hope that is the basis of all Christian mission. To hope for a better future in this world---for the poor, the sick, the lonely and depressed, for the slaves, the refugees, the hungry and homeless, for the abused, the paranoid, the downtrodden and despairing, and in fact for the whole wide, wonderful and wounded world---is not something else, something extra, something tacked on to the gospel as an afterthought. And to work for that immediate hope, the surprising hope that comes forward from God's ultimate ultimate future into God's urgent present, is not a distraction from the task of mission and evangelism in the present. It is a central, essential, vital, and life-giving part of it. " He spends the last half of the book considering the mission of the church and what that will look like as we are building for God's kingdom to come to earth as it is in heaven.... He continues on page 193 " The point of the resurrection...is that the present bodily life is not valueless just because it will die. God will raise it up to new life. What you do with your body in the present matters because God has a great future for it. And if this applies to ethics, as in 1 Corinthians 6, it certainly applies to the various vocations to which God's people are called. What you do in the present---by painting, preaching, singing, sewing, praying, teaching, building hospitals, digging wells, campaigning for justice, writing poems, caring for the needy, loving your neighbor as yourself----will last into God's future....they are apart of what we may call building for God's kingdom." This book will challenge you, your thinking and what God wants to do in and through you. You will want to read, "Surprised by Hope" by N. T Wright -- You will want to see what your role is now in this coming Kingdom.

This is my second time reading this book. I’m not sure why, but I got much more out of it this time through. Amazing. I must read for every person who wants to understand the narrative thrust of scripture and the movement of God in the world.

The Apostle's Creed was written over 1500 years ago to ensure that Christians would stick to orthodox beliefs. For some reason modern Christianity ignores the part of the Creed about the Resurrection. This is an absolute must-read for all seeking the real story of life after death. Well-written and thoroughly researched, this has changed the way I see life and death in a fundamental way.

The job of revitalising Christian eschatology cannot be done more robustly than it is done by the hand of Prof. Wright. Undeniably, his recent past as Bishop Wright is in itself trust-enticing. But the big job is brought off in Prof. Wright's rigorously Bible-based expositions, and by his argument that we have real and plentiful reason to rejoice. His style of rejoicing is not to do with the singing of boring hymns in churchy monotony. Rather, he commends holiday-making and champagne breakfasts! Refreshingly, Prof. Wright does not preach. He is not even slightly patronising. He puts his point, and defends it with rigorous logic. And, like the true don he is, he makes heavy weather of nothing, and is not sparing with his excellent wit. One thing I could not quite see the reason for, other than that it is fact, is Prof.Wright's concern to emphasise the Jewishness of Christ. Is he putting paid to theses that have proposed that Christ was not Jewish but Assyrian, etc? Still, this is aspect of his work interesting in itself, and in no way a fault of it. Jaded Christians, or curious non-Christians, will find this work a very good read indeed.

An outstanding book that should be read by all Jesus followers.

I was willing to study the book Surprised by Hope in our Sunday School but I had no idea how to approach the book in an intuitive and systematic way since we had only few meetings to study the whole book. Someone told me about the Study Guide book and I decided to give it a shot. It was very helpful, particularly the video classes featured by N T Wright. Studying the book with this study guide was the most didactical way I found. I recommend it.

N. T. Wright da una explicación, basada en la Biblia, de cómo es que en Jesús podemos comenzar a gozar de la vida eterna desde este momento.