Book Review: Suprised by Hope

N.T. Wright is probably my favorite author currently. He is intelligent, and challenging. This book is by far the best N.T. book I have read yet.

The premise of the book is that we have boiled the Christian Hope down to "going to heaven when you die" when in fact the Bible hardly talks about this subject. He then says that the Christian Hope as taught by the Bible is "God's renewal and healing of this present world" and "the resurrection of Christ is the prototype of what God will to to us and this world at the end of time."

He acknowledges the existence of heaven, but he states that heaven is not the final destination, but that resurrection is the "life after life after death" that we all hope for and all creation is groaning to see. Heaven is a "place of rest and waiting until this time."

He then takes this point and shows how focusing on this hope, the true Christian hope will shape the way you live your life, worship at church, and even how it should shape how a church should operate.

This is a must read for all people everywhere. For Christians, to get our bearings straight and figure out what we believe and let it shape our lives and faith, and for non-Christians who think they know what Christianity is about, but are wrong (by our own fault of poor communication and misunderstandings)

So if your faith is a mere "ticket to heaven for when you die," know that the Christian hope goes far beyond that. We should all grasp this fact, and this book really communicates it well.