I recently mentioned the HarperOne book Simply Jesus by NT Wright which is coming soon (late Oct, 2011). Today, I just noticed another forthcoming book that looks to be perhaps the next in a series on Jesus, this one called, How God Became King: The Forgotten Story of the Gospels (March 2012). Here is the description:
Since ancient times, the church has sought to distance itself from its Jewish roots and has developed teachings on the Bible and about Jesus that actually serve as a barrier for reading the New Testament for what it is: the story of the coronation of God through Jesus at the fulfillment of Jewish history and as the climax of all human history. Award-winning New Testament scholar and Anglican bishop, N.T. Wright peels back the barriers to reveal the lost story they tell. He begins by asking why each gospel starts by connecting back to the Old Testament in a dramatic way, repeatedly making the point that Jesus was the Messiah, God’s chosen one, who is continuing a story that began in Eden. Not only does Wright reveal a new way of looking at what the writers of the New Testament were attempting to reveal, he also lays the groundwork for how this new perspective can transform how we see our role and duties in the world today. Whereas the old framework caused the church to be preoccupied with our future fate (i.e., who’s going to be in heaven and who will be left out), this new paradigm sees our current life as under the reign of an active and caring God who wants his kingdom made incarnate in this world by the church. The forgotten story shows us that we should read our charge as: “Are you cooperating with God’s kingdom here and now?” This book will revolutionize how we read the Gospels and how the church understands its role in the world.
It is 256 pages, so quite similar in length to Simply Jesus. Who is How God Became King published by? I found it under both HarperOne and Zondervan. Are they the same company? How does that work?
Anyway, Wright is certainly keeping busy, all the while working on his big Paul book, the ICC commentary on Philippians, and the Two Horizons commentary on Galatians. How does he do it!
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