In N.T. Wright\u2019s third section to his book Simply Christian<\/em>, he deals with the following themes about the Christian life: worship, prayer, Bible, interpretation, believing\/belonging, and new creation\/starting now. It is a bit of a short manual on Christian living today. I wonder what you thought of this section in his book. In N.T. Wright\u2019s third section to his book Simply Christian, he deals with the following themes about the Christian life: worship, prayer, Bible, interpretation, believing\/belonging, and new creation\/starting now. It is a bit of a short manual on Christian living today. I wonder what you thought of this section in his book.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[476],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nWorship: Rev 4\u20135 is briefly examined. He deals Scripure reading (in public) and celebrating God through breaking bread.
\nPrayer: he brings back Option Three (see yesterday\u2019s post) and says prayer only makes good sense for Option Three (heaven and earth overlapping). A nice appeal to use set prayers, including the use of prayer books, the Jesus Prayer (which he cites in a form I\u2019ve not seen with \u201cSon of the Living<\/em> God\u201d), and then Shema.
\nBible: reminds of his book The Final Word<\/em>. The word \u201cinspired\u201d has to do with Option Three. Squabbling over which word best describes Scripture is like parents arguing about which parent loves the children the most. (Not a good analogy, but an evocatively useful one.)
\nStory and task: interpretation is covered here. Authority has to do with living out the story of the Bible. A long discussion on literal vs. metaphorical.
\nBelieving and belonging: very good chapter on the church. Very good. I like this on believing and belonging: \u201cYou can hide in the shadows at the back of the church for a while, but sooner or later you have to decide whether this is for you or not\u201d (203). Appropriate this week when we are blogging about emerging evangelism. The Church is about mission. He uses the image of waking up and deals with baptism, too.
\nNew Creation\/Starting Now: again, not about going to heaven but about bringing heaven to earth now. This is Tom\u2019s clearest statement I\u2019ve seen him make about the Second Coming (219). He sees two terms: renunciation and rediscovery. And then he looks at justice, relationships and beauty.
\nThis is a good book, not a great one. It is not on par with Mere Christianity<\/em> (for me at least); there are two competing themes in this book, which Tom ties together at times: the four echoes of a voice and the overlap of heaven and earth.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"