The New Testament and the People of God: Christian Origins and the Question of God v. 1 (Christian Origins & Ques God 1) (Paperback)

Wright has helpfully (for a reviewer at least) divided his work into five parts: an introduction, 'Tools for the Task', 'First-Century Judaism within the Greco-Roman world', 'The First Christian Century', and a conclusion.

'Tools for the Task' is the hardest section with which to know what to do. Recognising the difficulties in simplistic accounts of human knowing, Wright skilfully avoids the nihilism that claims that one cannot know truly anything external to oneself. He advocates what has become known as 'critical realism', a term which has become known to New Testament scholars primarily through the work of the late Ben F. Meyer (to whom Wright refers frequently and with approval). The forms of knowing in which Wright is most interested, for obvious reasons, are literary and historical knowledge. With regard to literature he asks, "Is anybody there?" a significant question given the solipsism of much recent literary theory. He explores Greimas' structuralist analysis of story, best known by Richard B. Hays use with regard to Paul (in his 'The Faith of Jesus Christ'). With regard to historical knowledge, he claims that real history will seek to get on the 'inside' of events. By this, he seems primarily to mean that the historian will seek to explore the intentions and beliefs of the actors in events. In short, the historian is interested in worldviews. To this end Wright developes a poweful grid for the analysis of worldviews, one that takes into account symbolic acts, defining stories, and praxis.

The rest of the work may be seen as an application of the tools explored in the first part. He explores the multiform world of second-Temple Judaism. It will come as no suprise to those familiar with Wright's work on Paul that he draws here on the ground-breaking work of E. P. Sanders (yet differing significantly in certain areas). While recognizing that Second-Temple Judaim was not a simple monolithic entity, Wright eschews the atomism that can speak only of 'judaisms'. It is here that we find the fullest and most sustained argument for Wright's well-known, and controversial, thesis that Jews of the Second Temple era regarded themselves as still being in exile and were awaiting the new exodus promised by the prophets. Wright's mastery of the primary literature is impressive. He displays all that one has come to expect from him: appreciation of the literature's national hopes, alertness to allusions, and razor-sharp wit.

He opens his section on 'The First Christian Century' with a reference to Albert Schweitzer's seminal 'The Quest for the Historical Jesus'. He claims that there is a need for someone to do for the history of the early church what Schweitzer did for historical Jesus research: deflate its pretensions and expose the tendentious nature of its argumentation. Although Wright does not allow this the space it needs (we perhaps may expect that later in the series), he makes a notable start. His most significant thesis is that obsession with the parousia and its imminence or delay is much more a phenomenon of modern scholarship than first century Christianity. This is a well-argued and welcome dose of common sense. As with Second-Temple Judaism, Wright begins to lay out the worldview of early Christianity. He does this in much less depth, however, for two reasons. First, Judaism forms the background from which Jesus, Paul, et alia come. Second, his exploration of 'Christian origins and the question of god' will necessarily flesh out his preliminary sketch here.

In his conclusion, Wright makes some bold and audacious statements. Most fundamental is his claim, repeated elsewhere, that the word 'god' is not univocal, hence his unusual habit of writing the word with a lower case 'g'. We do not necessarily know about what we are talking when we speak of the deity. He therefore takes on some enlightenment 'commonplaces', such as Neusner's attempt to claim that Christianity and Judaism (together with Islam) should be held apart as separate religions, but who worship the same god and should respect their shared humanity. He is not afraid to draw the necessary conclusion that either Christianity or Judaism can be right; they cannot both be. (Although, of course, they can both be wrong).

Although it would be utterly mistaken to classify Wright's work as an apologia for Christianity, as if he were a latter-day Justin Martyr, Wright does raise the questions that such a work would have to address. These are the ultimate issues of truth. Moreover, it should not surprise the reader that Wright explores those questions in relation to Jesus and the New Testament. He never preaches, and yet (depite himself) is one of the most eloquent defenders of the faith against its cultured despisers.

In conclusion, I whole-heartedly recommend this work to anyone who is interested in the Bible, theology, or even hermeneutics. Whether you come as a student seeking to find their way round the confusing world of second-Temple Judaism or looking for a readable introduction to the literature of the new Testament, or as a scholar looking to engage with one of the most exciting minds working in biblical studies at the present time, you will not be disappointed. Some one I know described Wright as "one of the brightest stars in a not particularly dazzling firmament of contemporary British New Testament scholarship". Even were the firmament more dazzling, Wright would still shine as one of the brightest stars to have risen to date.

I believe that this series will make its mark on the church.