Theology and Eschatology28 Feb 2008 11:33 am
N.T. Wright has written a new book entitled “Surprised By Hope.” In the book, Wright addresses what he perceives to be some of the thoroughly unbiblical portraits of heaven that the church has often painted.
I have not read the book yet. However, I was very much intrigued by this interview in which Wright discusses his new book and his theology of “life after life after death.”
I find myself having to think about this issue a bit more. How about you?
As a Christian I never worried much about Heaven. However, as a pastor, everytime I offer a funeral dinner prayer and say “As we gather around these tables we can be happy that (name) is eating at your banquet table in heaven” I wonder if I’m lying.
Also, we just finished a group study of “The Life God Rewards” by Bruce Wilkinson and that book is full of images of heaven being a continuation of life here on earth and what you accomplished here with the gifts you were given determines what you are rewarded with in your heavenly life.
Also, I’m not sure I want to live in eternity with some of the people I live with here on earth, so that picture doesn’t thrill either!
On Sunday during my sermon, I mentioned that some might be bored with their clouds and harps or wouldn’t want to sing, but the writers of the New Testament seemed to think it was a very special task to be one of the elders singing Holy Holy Holy over and over for ever and more!
Will look forward to further posts on your thoughts.
Thanks, Jackie.
And thanks for being so open in describing how the subject matter intersects so significantly with your ministry.
Curious thoughts considering so many in the pews take stock in books such as “The Five People You Meet In Heavan.” Good read, but something to be taken as a good work of fiction and not an ideal in terms of what to expect.
But then again, I too wonder how much of a “work of fiction” I make heaven when I am ministering to those in their last days.
Whether works of fiction or truths, I am intrigued by any accounts or writings about heaven. I have bought my one way ticket, so I choose to believe it is wonderful!
It is safe to say, “I am surprised by hope”.
B~
Bishop Wright is a brave man. In seminary I read Oscar Cullmann’s little book IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL OR RESURRECTION FROM THE DEAD, a hard-to-find work in which he shows the differences between the two ideas. Have you read this book?
Keith-
Yes, I have read that book. In fact, I read it in my senior year of college during a “Philosophies of Death” elective offered by the religion and philosophy departments. Much of our conversation in that class, if I remember it rightly, focused on the distinction between resurrection and immortality. Cullmann’s book, in that regard, was a honkin’ fine read.