NT Wright, Anglican Bishop of Durham, and perhaps the world's leading New Testament Scholar
New Testament scholar N.T. Wright has been a great help to my wife Sue and I (she’s the biblical scholar) in developing a much more nuanced understanding of the First Century Jewish world into which most of the NT was addressed.
If you believe that the primary meaning of biblical texts is found in what the original author intended to communicate to his original audience, then understanding the worldviews of first-century Judaism is critical. While we don’t agree with all of Wright’s theological conclusions, we have come to trust his unparalleled grasp of the first-century mind.
In this short video N.T. Wright explains his viewpoints on hell, human choice, and the allure of universalism.
Wright is much clearer and less inflammatory than recent videos/comments/interviews by Rob Bell (See, Love Wins? post), but I “think” that they are trying to say roughly the same thing. Or, better put, I suspect Rob is using his artistic passion to try to wake up the world to consider a viewpoint that N.T. Wright the careful scholar has sketched out with more subtle precision. At least I hope so. (I just got Rob’s book so I’m still not sure.) I know I am mostly on board with Wright on these issues. At this point I can only hope that Bell is actually as orthodox as he claims.
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Your thoughts?
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OTHER WRIGHT VIEWS ON LIFE AFTER LIFE AFTER DEATH
I’ve included a few other brief videos to flesh out some of Wright’s thoughts on heaven, hell, the new heaven and earth, and what he famously calls, “life after life after death” or just “life after the after life.”
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Why Is Hell Not Talked About?
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What Happens After You Die?
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What Does Heaven Look Like?
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What Will We Do in Heaven?
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