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| Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church | 
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Avg. Customer Rating:  (based on 39 reviews)
Sales Rank: 1095
Category: Book
Author: N. T. Wright
Publisher: HarperOne
Studio: HarperOne
Manufacturer: HarperOne
Label: HarperOne
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.3 x 0.9
ISBN: 0061551821
Dewey Decimal Number: 236.8
EAN: 9780061551826
ASIN: 0061551821
Publication Date: February 1, 2008
Release Date: February 5, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
N.T. Wright at his Best October 19, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
For three months in the summer of 2004, I labored through N.T. Wright's massive book, The Resurrection of the Son of God - an important work for anyone interested in the historical evidence for the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Resurrection of the Son of God significantly deepened my appreciation for Easter. Wright's research bolstered my confidence in the historicity of the New Testament accounts, but more than that, it helped me to understand why the Resurrection was necessary and why it is so important to Christian theology.
Needless to say, I was happy to discover that Wright was working on an edited, popular-level supplement to The Resurrection of the Son of God. Fast forward to 2008. Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church has been released, a sequel of sorts to Simply Christian. (And yes, the allusions to C.S. Lewis' works Mere Christianity and Surprised by Joy are an intentional advertising gimmick, although readers quickly discover that the comparisons to Lewis do have some merit.)
In Surprised by Hope, Wright attempts to do three things. First, he exposes current Christianity's muddled views of the afterlife by taking us through the historical evidence for and the theological explanation of Jesus' resurrection. Second, he answers questions regarding eschatology that necessarily arise from his Resurrection theology - showing how his eschatological framework best fits the New Testament witness. Third, he shows how the Christian's future hope of resurrection forms the foundation for current social action, evangelism, and spirituality.
For those familiar with Wright's previous work on the resurrection, Surprised by Hope will not surprise you (no pun intended). For years now, Wright has been advocating a return to a more biblical, more creation-centered, more Jewish understanding of the future hope of new heavens and new earth. Other theologians have been speaking up about this subject too, in hopes that a more robust view of heaven will reenergize our Kingdom efforts on earth. (Michael Wittmer's Heaven Is a Place on Earth and Randy Alcorn's textbook-styled Heaven come to mind.)
But Surprised by Hope stands out in the amount of material that Wright is able to incorporate into a single volume and in the moving way in which he makes his case. This book carries an emotional resonance rarely encountered among works of theology. At times, Wright's description of the Christian hope so moved me that I found myself wiping away tears.
Surprised by Hope contains many paradoxes, which is what we have come to expect from a theologian like Wright. Here are a few examples:
Wright argues forcefully for Christ's bodily resurrection (to the "Amens" of his conservative readers), but then shows why that must necessarily inform our view of the Christian's future hope (and the picture is significantly different [i.e. grander!] than what conservatives have generally taught).
He devotes significant space to eschatology, firmly disagreeing with the Preterist position, while admitting that Jesus' prophecies concerned the Fall of Jerusalem.
Dispensationalists will not countenance his interpretation of Revelation or Daniel, and yet Amillennialists will be surprised by his refusal to spiritualize the Kingdom in ways that detract from an earthy application.
Reformed readers will have trouble with Wright's "New Perspective on Paul" that surfaces in a couple of places, and yet they will applaud his Kuyperian stance on the lordship of Christ over all creation.
Roman Catholics will disagree with Wright's decisive rejection of purgatory and praying to the saints, but some Protestants may be equally puzzled about Wright leaving room for Christians to pray for the dead (not for their salvation, mind you, but only for their rest!)
Traditionalists will be glad to see Wright rejecting universalism and affirming the existence of hell, and yet, Wright's innovative view of hell (in terms of dehumanization) is more akin to C.S. Lewis than to anything clearly taught in Scripture. (Wright's view serves as middle way between annihilationism and the traditional view of eternal torment.)
Pastors would do well to read the final chapters of Surprised by Hope. Wright gives food for thought on the nature of mission work and evangelism. He also offers practical advice on reinvigorating our anemic Easter celebrations.
Surprised by Hope will be one of Wright's most widely-read books. Though readers should proceed with caution regarding some of Wright's proposals, the wheat in this book far outweighs the chaff.
 Never Surprised by Brilliance October 2, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I have read the much larger and more detailed Resurrection of the Son of God, Wright's scholarly version of this book. Now he has written much the same book in a more casual form. It is more accessible but still accurate, still fascinating, still Wright. Perhaps I should be surprised that one man can do both, but I'm not, because it's Wright, and he's done it before.
 OK...but October 2, 2008
3 out of 6 found this review helpful
Right off I would say that it is impossible for someone as prolific as Wright to have each book be successful. Having read several of his other works, I did hear some of the same music in this one. The initial two-thirds of the book aren't really much good. That being said, those portions on the Resurrection of Christ as ordering the mission of the Church were very good, although I think Bright's work "The Kingdom of God" is a much better work. You might also see "Royal Priesthood?" To his credit, Wright is trying to convince people--and perhaps those within his own confession--that traditional ideas about the resurrection really are not New Testament ideas. I don't think he succeeds. Finally, I hate footnotes that refer to other works by the same author; Wright's work is full of these. I doubt very much that Wright's ideas in this work are so ground-breaking that he is only able to cite himself. I do think that Wright would be better served to publish less as his work is starting to sound redundant.
 Premise & Contents Unscriptural and Extra-biblical September 20, 2008
0 out of 31 found this review helpful
After reading this, extreme disappointment.
No need to rethink heaven, hell, Gospel, Judgment, Salvation from God's Wrath, Resurrection, Great Commission, Restoration of Davidic Monarchy by His Majesty King Jesus the First.
Desperate need on part of author to re-read the Bible with a new optometrist: The Holy Spirit and a Large Print Version.
Sola Scriptura Satis: Scripture alone is sufficient without baggage of rabbinic 1st century judaism scholarship informed by 21st century revisionism.
Please examine Peter's and Paul's sermons in Acts carefully to refute all the author's premises and departures from Biblical Gospel.
PICO - Preclusions In Conclusions Out.
A Must Read September 6, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Bishop Wright has taken one of the most important concepts of Christianity and in non-theological terms clarified the teachings Jesus and the apostles about life-after-life-after-death and what is means for the mission of the Church. Many readers will have a surprise when the learn that they will not spend eternity in a white robe, with halo and harp, playing boring music. He strips off confusing ideas added in the Middle Ages and today's pop culture and shines a light on what we should be doing now in preparation for the appearing of Jesus and the remaking of the cosmos.
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