C.S. Lewis defined an unliterary person as someone who reads books only once.
In honour of my second reading (yes, that makes me better than you) of N.T. Wright's Jesus and the Victory of God (JVG), I'm going to post some selected quotes as I go along. Expect maybe one or two a week. If you've read the book already this will be a nice refresher. If you haven't, then perhaps something you read here will spark enough interest to make you go out and get a copy. You would not be wasting either your time or your money should you do so - that's a guarantee.
The point of having Jesus at the centre of a religion or a faith is that one has Jesus: not a cypher, a strange silhouetted Christ-figure, nor yet an icon, but the one Jesus the New Testament writers know, the one born in Palestine in the reign of Augustus Caesar, and crucified outside Jerusalem in the reign of his successor Tiberius. Christianity appeals to history; to history it must go. The recognition that the answers we may find might change our views, or even our selves, cannot and must not prevent us from embarking on the quest.
oh...and i actually really like this blog design thing you have going on...where did you dig this up?
ReplyDeleteIt's just one of the templates with a little bit of a twist. I reckon it's a keeper, all right. It's like I'm nailing my posts to a piece of wood, which feels pretty cool.
ReplyDeletelet that inner calvin arise
ReplyDelete"That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete." 1 Jn 1:1-4
ReplyDeleteWord. (Get it? Word?)
ReplyDeleteThe irony is that for the purposes of the book, Wright largely ignores the testimony of John and instead focuses on the synoptics. If there was ever a case for Christians today to take a deep interest in the historical Jesus, John has made it in the verse you quoted!
OF course I understand Wright's rationale, but I'd be interested to hear his take on the Jesus of John's gospel. Perhaps I'll pick up "John for everyone".