Following Jesus by Wright - Book Report/Review Example

REFLECTIONS Reflections on the Book Following Jesus by N.T. Wright Word Count 261 (5 pages) When taking into account N.T. Wright’s book Following Jesus, there are three points that will be touched upon and what I liked (or didn’t like) about each of those statements, which I feel are reflected—in a larger sense—in this work. Wright was very clear on one point, which I did agree with wholeheartedly. According to Wright (1995), “God intended his world to be ordered, not random” (pp. 18). Everything in nature has order. Everything has a form, everything has a shape, a color, a name, a classification—something. One thing that I can predictably agree with Wright on is this point: that God does not make junk. Everything in this world is so ‘fearfully and wonderfully made,’ as the Psalmist put it. There are, however, other viewpoints of Wright’s which I didn’t care for as much, which were sprinkled throughout this book, and actually made me almost sorry to call myself a Christian when reading it! But, given the fact that N.T. Wright was a scholar of yesteryear, I guess he can be forgiven for some of what he wrote. After all, he didn’t live long enough to see the Berlin Wall fall, or to see the first test-tube baby, or even long enough to watch the movie Bubble Boy. So, I will give him that—Wright wasn’t around to see much of how the world evolved—or shall I say, de-evolved. Wright makes an interesting statement towards the beginning of the book. According to Wright (1995), “The Word, the eternal self-expression of God, the one through whom the world was made, pitched his tent in our midst” (pp. 39). Now, I thought this was a bit cocky, to say that the Son of God had ‘pitched his tent’ in our midst. It’s not very respectful—and N.T. Wright should have known better to really, how shall I say, be respectful! This is God’s Son we are talking about here. We’re not talking about one of our neighbors pitching a tent in his backyard. We’re talking about the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, having taken this Modes of Discipleship class, I know that N.T. Wright was a famous scholar and Lord help him. But seriously, I have a real problem with the fact that this man was obviously at least a little bit flippant that he knew something. Well, I hate to mention this—but there are a lot of other people in the world who have read the Bible too! Wright is not the only guy in the universe to have read the Bible cover to cover. I and many of my colleagues have probably done so at some point or another. What is so astonishing is that he gets on this level where he is writing and he’s not necessarily speaking truth to power here. Now, when he made the first statement about God intending the world to be ordered, that made total sense. So now, when he’s talking about Christ simply ‘pitching his tent’ among these yea-hoos the living… it sends the message that he might possibly not have cared much for the theoretical bit of Christ being God’s Son—and also implies that he did not really think much of the people Christ hung out with, his disciples. And this is a book about discipleship, oo-ey! I can barely contain myself. Here is another part where Wright was totally, just I mean, way totally off-base. Wright (1995) states, “When the Bible speaks of human beings and how they order or disorder their lives, the assumption is that we are all made in the image of God” (pp. 93). This is one part of the book I just could absolutely not stand reading, because it’s not true. According to the Holy Bible, every human being is made in God’s image. It says it in the Bible! I don’t even have to quote it. So, for Wright to come out and say that just totally tarnished his reputation in my book right there. Now, maybe Wright came from a culture where it was okay for his God to be bigger than everyone elses’s God—but that kind of non-P.C. attitude would not fly in today’s era of political correctness. I’m sorry, but it doesn’t matter who you are—Jew, Buddhist, Christian, Muslim, Zoroastrian, atheist, Bah’ai, whatever—you are still not only ‘fearfully and wonderfully made’, but you’re also created in God’s image. I just stopped reading at that point in that particular chapter because I couldn’t continue to read those lies, and skipped to another part altogether. I know my God, and I know my Bible, and I know that for certain things, N.T. Wright had it all wrong. Now, I am not saying that N.T. Wright did not know his Scripture, or was not a good person. Because, I believe that ultimately, yes he knew what he was doing and yes he knew how to read the Word of God and apply it correctly. However, what I sincerely doubt are his methods. If he didn’t write inclusively on purpose, that is one thing. But if he did it in order to instruct Christians, in my view this is an antiquated book that leaves a lot of people possibly wondering who Christians really are if they believe the kind of things that he wrote in Following Jesus. I follow Jesus, but N.T. Wright’s God is not necessarily my God—no sir. Indeed, I know He is not. My God is fair, kind, loving, loyal, and just. So, with exception to the one point of the book that I thought was absolutely brilliant, I would have to say overall that I was disappointed, especially with some of the quotes (two to be precise) that I pointed out here which greatly troubled me. I know N.T. Wright was a brilliant and lauded scholar of some note. However, that does not mean that I would blindly accept his (or anyone’s) writing just because he advocates that he knows something about following Jesus and teaching people about discipleship. True discipleship comes from the body of Christ, which is not made of a building, but which is a body of believers. This means, in essence, that we cannot live without the Word of God, we cannot do without the Word of God, and we cannot be without hte Word of God to guide us in our lives. Other than that, I totally respect Mr. Wright’s beliefs and opinions, because he too was a professing Christian who did care about what others thought. I am not saying that this man was a total heathen or that he meant t olead people astray. Definitely, that is not the case. But, what I am saying, is that people can write these high-and-mighty theosophical books without having the forethought to not only reference Scripture, but get down to the bottom of what it actually means. That is why this man learnt how to read letters in school, and then went on to get higher education and schooling so that he could read Greek and Hebrew. Oh Hallelujah! Because I know this, I know that I know that I know that what God says is not false and what this man also says is just kind of adding on to the Word of God—which of course, says that it is not allowed at the end of the Bible. Otherwise, I have seen how this book has shown me to be a great disciple—to read the Word of God and keep it close to my heart. Amen. REFERENCES Wright, N.T. (1995). Following Jesus: Biblical reflections on discipleship. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. Read More