Bob Gundry Reviews N.T. Wright’s How God Became King

In the latest issue of BBR (24.1 [2014]: 57-73), Robert Gundry has a critical review of N.T. Wright’s How God Became King, here’s the blurb:

During his public ministry, Jesus taught extensively in words and deeds about the kingdom of God. IN How God Became King, N.T. Wright weds this material with Jesus’ self-sacrificial death to argue that God’s kingdom was also established by those words an deeds and, above all, by that death rather than by force of arms. Growing out of this argument are an advocacy of pacifism, theocracy, and the divine right of human rulers, on teh one hand, and a repudiation of democracy, the separation of church and state, and just war theory on the other hand. Undergirding these pros and cons is the use of Israel’s theocracy as a pattern to be followed in political engagement as part of Christians’ evangelistic enterpreise. This review finds Wright’s arguments exegetically and biblically-theologically unconvincing.

Whoa, okay, its quite a read (though at the end Gundry does express appreciation for many of Wright’s other writings on atonement, resurrection, and justification).