Book Review: Simply Christian

This is a book that needs a second reading, which I don’t have time for, so I’ll write a brief review now.

N.T. Wright is a brilliant spokesperson for the Christian faith and a much-needed scholar for our times. This little book is a beautiful statement of the Christian faith, framed in a way that is far more accessible than the typical constructs of systematic theology. If you’re wondering what it looks like to do theology from the “story” point of view, this is a good volume for you.

Part One addresses four primary concerns of our “postmodern” age: justice, relationships, spirituality, and beauty. One by one, he explains that while many people desire these things, it’s obvious that we’re broken and can’t achieve them. We need rescuing.

Part Two takes us through the story of God, Israel, Jesus, and the Spirit, and it’s an excellent overview of God’s rescue plan for the world. Helpful in this section is the three “options” for viewing the relationship between “heaven” (God’s dwelling) and “earth” (our dwelling). Covering briefly the problems with patheism and deism (options one and two), he frames the rest of the book in a “worldview” in which heaven and earth are two dimensions that overlap with each other, and the ultimate “rescue” plan is for heaven to come right down to earth - and it does so in Jesus.

Part Three takes us through life as a rescued people, a new creation, and there’s much here that is of great value to the modern church. I’d say that Part Three is the most important section of the book, giving us an excellent framework for liturgy, the sacraments, and the church’s mission in the world.

The book’s “heaven and earth” motif powerfully dispels the absurd notions about Jesus coming back to destroy the earth and snatch us all away to heaven. Redemption of the earth is the plan. The New Jerusalem comes down here; we don’t go up there. It’s “life after ‘life after death’” that is the culmination of God’s great rescue mission for the earth.

Perhaps the book’s weakness is in the tension that can be found between its being a book for unbelievers to explore Christianity and a book for believers to learn it better. I’m not entirely sure the book is all that accessible to a nonChristian reader, though I could very well be wrong about that.

In any case, it is a much-needed and powerful exploration of the Christian faith, and I highly recommend it. I’d start writing in more detail about its content, but then I’d be here all morning and have written an essay so long that anyone who finds this post will quickly pass it by. Go pick up the book. You won’t regret it.