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Permalink: http://www.fulcrum-anglican.org.uk/616
Fulcrum Subjects: Theology, Biblical Studies / Mission Other articles by Stephen Kuhrt are available from this site Discuss this Article on the Fulcrum Forum See the 7 comments on this article
Tom Wright for Everyone
Putting the Theology of N.T. Wright into practice in the Local Church (SPCK £9.99)
by Stephen Kuhrt
Two deeper convictions explain the nature of the rest of the book. One is my belief that Wright’s theology has provided really compelling answers to some of the biggest issues facing the western church today. The task of the church, therefore, and particularly church leaders like myself, is to find ways of implementing this theology in practical and meaningful ways in our ministry and mission. Equally strong, however, is my conviction that, as well as the factors already mentioned, a more wilful reluctance to engage with Wright’s theology is one of the factors preventing this occurring. Within Chapter 1 of the book, the case is made that both within the very different worlds of academic biblical scholarship and much evangelical Christianity, engagement with Wright’s theology is being avoided for remarkably similar reasons – chiefly a fear of what ‘foundational truths’ may need to be reviewed and possibly changed if this engagement takes place. To encourage such engagement, Chapter 2 takes a largely autobiographical approach as I outline a number of the theological and practical issues that I struggled with as I grew up within the evangelical tradition and which eventually found immense help and resolution through engaging with Wright’s scholarship. These issues include the nature of the Christian hope, the significance of the resurrection of Jesus, the lack of a convincing theological basis for holistic mission, evangelical treatments of sin, evil and the atonement, evangelical approaches to the Bible and biblical scholarship and evangelical ambivalence towards ‘the good things of creation’, the sacraments and the Church. Approaching these issues in an autobiographical way rather than a more abstract form is designed to make them more accessible and preparatory for Chapter 3’s role in showing how Wright’s theology addresses all of these areas as well as several others.
The three chapters that follow give rise to the second part of the book’s title – Putting the Theology of N.T. Wright into Practice in the Local Church. In these chapters I seek to show the immense difference that Wright’s theology has made to the practical life of the church of which I am vicar, Christ Church New Malden. Arguably the most important part of the book, these chapters largely tell stories of what has happened at the church as Wright’s theology has been allowed to change our approach to pastoral care, mission and church life more generally. Included among these areas are our approach to ministry surrounding death and bereavement, our development of a far more holistic mission agenda, the significant impact that Wright’s thought on justification has made on our ecclesiology and fellowship and the influence of his work on idolatry and dualism. Further sections also deal with the development of our approach to forgiveness and also the full ministry of women. The final chapter of the book then seeks to reflect more broadly on the challenge posed by Tom Wright’s theology to the Church today. It ends with a strong call to resist fear and make the engagement that is necessary for this theology to have the impact it should on how the Church can faithfully minister within its twenty-first century context.
My hope and my prayer is that Tom Wright for Everyone can play a small role in helping more Christians to play their part in the transformational mission and ministry to which God has called his Church.
Endorsements for Tom Wright for Everyone
‘What we believe has a huge impact on the way that we behave. Our theology determines our strategy. That’s what makes this book such great value. Not only does it provide an extraordinarily accessible and succinct overview of the challenge presented by Tom Wright’s ground-breaking work around the life and message of Jesus and the early church – it’s also a thought-provoking account of its practical outworking through a local church and in a local community.’
Steve Chalke MBE, Founder of Oasis Global and Leader of Church.co.uk, London. UN Special Advisor on Community Action Against Human Trafficking
‘In this book Stephen Kuhrt offers us two very important things: not only has he pulled together the many different strands of N.T. (Tom) Wright's thinking into a thoughtful and readable whole, he also offers us the quite considerable reflections of someone who has, over the years, sought to put this theology into practice in his own ministry. It is thought-provoking, reflective, challenging and well worth reading.’
Paula Gooder, Writer and Lecturer in New Testament Studies
‘Stephen Kuhrt’s book makes a warm and convincing case that Tom Wright’s theology has the potential to transform the local church, the academy and contemporary evangelicalism. This is a timely and accessible introduction to the significance of a formidable thinker and brave servant of God.’
John Pritchard, Bishop of Oxford
‘The best theology has to be able to go beyond the academy into the everyday life of Christians. It has to be transformative for what we think and what we do. Stephen Kuhrt shows in this excellent book that Tom Wright's theology is all of that. And through his insights and practical wisdom Stephen offers his own challenge to the church today.’
Elaine Storkey, Director of Education and Training Church Army, President of Tear Fund
‘Making good theology accessible and demonstrating its relevance for Christian life is an urgent need today. Stephen Kuhrt’s book will be a very valuable contribution in narrowing the gap between the academy and the church, a gap which has often yawned far too wide.’
Graham Tomlin, Dean, St Mellitus College
Tom Wright for Everyone: Putting the Theology of N.T. Wright into Practice in the Local Church is published by SPCK and available at http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tom-Wright-Everyone-Kuhrt-Stephen/dp/0281063931/ref=sr_1_43?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1296648642&sr=1-43
Discuss this Article on the Fulcrum Forum Forum Posts About This Article:Posted by: Dave Friday 8 July 2011 - 05:56pm A J Barford I do not understand your problem with N T Wright. In terms of Pauline studies homosexuality is a fairly insignificant area. Further, I do not see that an individuals orientation prevents him studying homosexuality in an impartial or empathic way. It makes no difference who does the work on separated twins which indicates the strength of genetic causation. Steve, When Tom Wright has striped away the apocalyptic language, I am not sure how much he has left as future history. I think you can base all the concern for nature and the environment on looking at it as God's gift irrespective of eschatology. Similarly with political involvement, this is based on God being sovereign of all of life so every area is significant to him. As regards the value of what we are doing now consider 1 Cor 3:12-14 Dave Posted by: A J Barford Monday 4 July 2011 - 11:35pm "New Perspective on Paul" - Steve Carter How can anyone seriously write a book about Paul without first-hand experience of what it means to be gay? Posted by: Steve Carter Monday 4 July 2011 - 10:05pm I found this a fascinating and very helpful book. The summary of Wright's theology is brilliant, and worth the price of the book by itself. Wright was briefly my tutor many years ago, and I have tried to keep learning from him since through his books. I doubt if anyone has taught me more about the New Testament, and the "New Perspective on Paul" that he has expounded with others has given me a much more satisfying way of reading the Pauline letters. Yet more recently I have found it harder to identify with his theology generally, and this book has helped me to understand why. Wright's eschatology is clearly foundational to Stephen Kuhrt's thinking and church leadership as explained in the book, and I think that it is probably the defining issue for Wright's theology as a whole. Go with him on this, and one will probably accept that theology as a whole, while maybe differing on details. Differ from him on this, and one will probably not accept the whole theology, although one's own views will properly be challenged, changed and expanded in all sorts of helpful ways. It's not that I have a problem with "new heavens, new earth" eschatology, or with conceiving the churches' mission as providing a foretaste of that new creation. But I don't believe, either biblically or empirically, that ALL elements of that mission will survive the transition from the old or the new, and despite Wright's arguments I still find myself wanting to affirm a much greater measure of discontinuity between them than he allows. Surely it's possible to look forward with joy to the remaking of creation while also believing it will first experience a significant measure of unmaking, even of destruction? A model for mission on ministry based on this rather different eschatology might be very similar to Stephen Kuhrt's, but I think it would differ from it in some respects: in a lighter holding to the things of this creation, for instance, and probably in a much more quietist approach to politics. Posted by: Dave Thursday 26 May 2011 - 11:55am I have started to read Stephen's book. The role NTW has played in the development of his thought is clear from the personal narrative he gives. I was confused and disappointed in the 1970's by the state of evangelical opinion in much the same way that he was in the 1980's. At that time I did not have NTW to guide me. Instead my "Christian mind" as we said then was formed by reading such authors as C S Lewis, J I Packer, F Schaefer, JRW Stott and T C Hammond. Against this background I was not aware of NTW causing a paradigm shift in my thinking. I also read his works over a longer period. Many of the things Stephen learned from NTW were already in the best of evangelical thought in the 1970s. Behind much of NTWs more controversial thought lies his espousal of E P Sanders interpretation of Judaism. This has been given a somewhat different slant by James Dunn. Does this mean that the gospel was not properly understood until 1980? Another example of evangelicals grappling with NTW is John Stott in the introduction to the BST on Romans and there is a chapter in "The incomparable Christ" . SPCK have just published the proceedings of the Wheaton conference devoted to the works of NTW which includes a contribution by Markus Bockmuehl so NTW is not entirely neglected at Oxford! Dave Posted by: Dave Thursday 26 May 2011 - 11:54am I have started to read Stephen's book. The role NTW has played in the development of his thought is clear from the personal narrative he gives. I was confused and disappointed in the 1970's by the state of evangelical opinion in much the same way that he was in the 1980's. At that time I did not have NTW to guide me. Instead my "Christian mind" as we said then was formed by reading such authors as C S Lewis, J I Packer, F Schaefer, JRW Stott and T C Hammond. Against this background I was not aware of NTW causing a paradigm shift in my thinking. I also read his works over a longer period. Many of the things Stephen learned from NTW were already in the best of evangelical thought in the 1970s. Behind much of NTWs more controversial thought lies his espousal of E P Sanders interpretation of Judaism. This has been given a somewhat different slant by James Dunn. Does this mean that the gospel was not properly understood until 1980? Another example of evangelicals grappling with NTW is John Stott in the introduction to the BST on Romans and there is a chapter in "The incomparable Christ" . SPCK have just published the proceedings of the Wheaton conference devoted to the works of NTW which includes a contribution by Markus Bockmuehl so NTW is not entirely neglected at Oxford! Dave Posted by: Dave Sunday 22 May 2011 - 11:18am Tom Wright, rather like a le Carre character has led something of a double life. He even presented his name in two forms, Tom Wright and N T Wright, which confused the Amazon search engine for many years as well as the honorifics the church has given him. Behind these two names there are two personas. There is NT Wright professor of theology and there is Tom Wright, former bishop on whom the mantle of William Barclay and C S Lewis has fallen. I wonder if these are compatible. More significantly is he a historian helping us discover Paul and Jesus or a theologian reinventing them in his own image? When he was an undergraduate he helped produce"The Grace of God in the Gospel" which was a defense of the reformed faith. Does he still hold to this faith? I hope this book will answer some of these questions. Stephen Kuhrt speaks of a "more willful reluctance to engage with Wright’s theology". I would draw his attention to John Piper's masterful critique which is available free at http://cdn.desiringgod.org/pdf/books_bfj/books_bfj.pdf Dave 
Posted by: Jody
Sunday 22 May 2011 - 09:55am
Dear Friends We have just published 'Tom Wright for Everyone' by Stephen Kuhrt. please use this thread for discussion. blessings, Jody |
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So what caused me to write a book with the somewhat cheeky title Tom Wright for Everyone? My motivation was simple: to provide more people with access to the ground-breaking biblical scholarship of N.T. Wright. Over the last few years I have met numerous Christians, both lay and ordained, who have combined a great deal of attraction to what they have grasped of Wright’s thought with the desire to receive a greater amount of help in unpacking his work and understanding how it fits together. On a number of occasions, groups that knew that I had a keen interest in Wright’s scholarship would ask if I would come and explain his thought further and the summary of Wright’s theology in Chapter 3 of the book is a somewhat expanded version of what I would present on those occasions. Wright has a much easier writing style than most theologians and biblical scholars and it therefore became clear to me that, rather the problem being mainly one of complexity, it was Wright’s significantly different understanding of familiar biblical words and concepts was the primary factor that was preventing people from fully ‘getting’ his thought. The approach that I therefore take in Chapter 3 of the book is seeking to break down Wright’s thought into ‘bite sized chunks’ to make it more digestible. These are arranged under thirty eight headings most of which use key terms which play a crucial role in Wright’s theology such as ‘Story’, ‘Covenant’, ‘Exile’, ‘Eschatology’, ‘Resurrection’, ‘Prophet’, ‘Victory’, ‘Righteousness’,