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{"id":1712,"date":"2013-04-02T09:05:39","date_gmt":"2013-04-02T15:05:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/?p=1712"},"modified":"2013-04-02T09:05:39","modified_gmt":"2013-04-02T15:05:39","slug":"breaking-beautiful-is-it-sad-that-i-have-to-say-this-is-not-a-ruse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2013\/04\/breaking-beautiful-is-it-sad-that-i-have-to-say-this-is-not-a-ruse.html","title":{"rendered":"Breaking Beautiful: Is it sad that I have to say this is not a ruse?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"\"$ <\/a>I\u2019m not an April Fool\u2019s guy. I\u2019ve never been much of a prankster on any day. I cannot enjoy another person\u2019s discomfort, it trips my internal justice meter. If I\u2019m around someone who is playing a practical joke I will purposefully ruin the joke before it ever happens because I can\u2019t stand to see someone hung out to dry like that. It just bother\u2019s me.<\/p>\n

So it never even entered my mind that people would think it was a prank when I posted Breaking Beautiful<\/a>\u00a0yesterday on Facebook. I knew it was April 01 and had read about Google and Hulu and their 2013 pranks, but I always consider the big tech-culture fascination with April Fool\u2019s day to be silly and childish (which is, you know, my problem not theirs\u2026 I\u2019m always so earnest\u2026 must learn to lighten up).<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what happened. I was at Amazon.com looking up the title of the John Piper book that he wrote in an unsuccessful attempt, to\u00a0controvert\u00a0N.T. Wright\u2019s version of the New Perspective on Paul. One of the \u201csimilar work\u201d suggestions on Amazon was this project I\u2019m working on for The House Studio<\/a>. I wasn\u2019t aware that the project was out there yet. I got excited, and posted a link to Facebook saying that I could now die a happy man.<\/p>\n

Late last \u00a0night I got some messages from folks asking if it was a ruse. I thought \u2013 of course! That\u2019s what I would think, too. I mean, let\u2019s tell the truth here people: the difference between me and N.T. Wright is \u2026let\u2019s just say that we are not playing at the same level. Nevertheless, it\u2019s not a joke, although I supposed it is kind of funny \u2013 if not really sad for me \u2013 that my friends would think it so utterly absurd that I\u2019d have to explicitly say it is not a ruse (Thanks for the confidence people).<\/p>\n

Before you start to think more highly of me than you ought to, me and N.T. Wright are not lab partners. Wright recorded these videos for\u00a0 The Work of the People<\/a>. The House Studio is repackaging them in a DVD form and I\u2019m writing the book that goes along with those videos. Basically my job is to riff off of what N.T. Wright talked about in the video, give some background to his work, try to help the normal everyday Christian to fill in some of the theological gaps so that they can interact with Wright\u2019s important themes.<\/p>\n

By most accounts N.T. Wright is one of the 2-3 greatest living theologians, and may well end up being the singular giant of his generation. It seems likely to me that fifty years from now people will talk about Wright in the same way we talk about Karl Barth today. Nobody in future generations will be able to do serious Pauline Theology, nor will they be able to work with the biblical theme of resurrection, without dealing directly with N.T. Wright. He\u2019s a theological titan. I\u2019m grateful to get to help people interact with his thinking.<\/p>\n

Also \u2013 just as a quick heads up so nobody thinks I\u2019m trying to pull a fast one: I also signed a contract with Zondervan earlier this year to write \u00a0a book called Shrink<\/em>, a project about which I am extremely excited. It\u2019s loosely based on this article<\/a>, and this one<\/a>, and this one<\/a> that I wrote for The Huffington Post<\/em>. Book is due out in 2014; not April first, as far as I know.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"