“It's taken me a long time to pick up a book by Tom Wright and I have to wonder why it took me as long as it has done. I had been coming across quotes from Wright in lots of different books that I've been reading recently, so I asked some friends about which of his books I ought to begin with. This is the one I was recommended so I dutifully bought and enthusiastically read it.
Wright contends that 'each generation has to wrestle afresh with the question of Jesus, not least its biblical roots, if it is to be truly the Church at all'. He certainly does just this in his short book, and whilst he constantly apologises for not being able to go deeper into some matter or other, he somehow manages to include a huge amount of information that would reward a slower read than the one I gave to it. At the heart of what he explores is re-exploring Jesus' cleansing of the temple as God#s return to the temple and the replacement of the team with a kingdom meal. Along the way Wright asks if Jesus knew he was God and what is meant by eternal life.
I found this to be a book that understands how we find ourselves in a unique place in history, able to explore the Scriptures in ways not possible by earlier generations, and hoping that we can move our theology on to a new and better appreciation of what God was purposing in Christ, and therefore, a better understanding of what the Church is to be.”
