Journal

NT Wright - Resurrection of the Son of God

Posted on October 19th, 2004, in the evening

Well it's been in my 'currently reading' bar since I launched the site, but I finally finished reading 'Resurrection of the Son of God' this morning. I would normally attempt some kind of review, but what can you say...? The scholarship of this book is way beyond any comments I could make on it, but I can give you a brief overview and encourage anyone with any interest in theology to read it...

'Resurrection of the Son of God' explores what the historian can say about the resurrection. Starting with the epic poets, the immediate Jewish context, Paul's letters, and finally investigating the Gospel accounts themselves Wright ultimately presents the case that the referent of the early church proclamation of Jesus' resurrection could not possibly be anything other than precisely that Jesus had been bodily raised from the dead (against those who suggest this was a later innovation). He then goes on to argue that the historical fact of the rise of the early church belief and practice can only be satisfyingly accounted for on the basis that Jesus was indeed bodily raised (regardless of how strange that may sound).

Though self consciously unable to cover every related subject in exhaustive depth, 'Resurrection of the Son of God' steadily builds page after page towards the high Christology of the final chapter, and in so doing successfully grounds a high Christology on testable historical foundations.

The much narrower scope of the argument of this book than 'Jesus and the Victory of God' (book 2) means there isn't the sense of incredible, multifluous, conclusive crescendo as in the last few chapters of the previous book, but the target here is very different. 'Resurrection of the Son of God' is simultaneously a glorious invitation to Christians whose hope is found in the resurrection to lay down closed-minded defensiveness against historical scrutiny, and a calm challenge to complacent cynics to present an alternative explanation for what is demonstrated to be the historical evidence.