How representative is NT Wright of Anglican beliefs?

[Vance]

I am not an Anglican, but I have downloaded and listened to a number of lectures and sermons by NT Wright, the Bishop of Durham. I know he is a respected Biblical scholar, and as a Bishop, I would assume he is fairly orthodox to the Anglican beliefs. But he calls himself an "evangelical" Anglican in a way that sounds as if it is a movement or "flavor" of Anglicanism. How much would his teachings represent Anglicanism on the whole?

 

[TomUK]

I'm not academically familiar with Bishop Wright, but the few times i've heard him spoke i;ve found him to be excellent. In regards to him representing Anglican theology, i'm afraid no individual offers an account of Anglican beliefs. In short, Tom Wright is speaking his own opinion, and unless his teaching wildly contradicts the bible, tradition or reason then i'm sure he will continue to say what he believes as an individual Bishop in the Church of England.

I'll do some reading and perhaps post again shortly, but i found this website if anyone is interested.
http://www.ntwrightpage.com/

 

[Vance]

Yes, that is the site I use as well. He has some very interesting lectures on mp3 and on Realplayer, as well as numerous articles. I downloaded the mp3 ones for play on my mp3 player.

 

[PaladinValer]

Hi Vance

If your question relates to "Origins Theology," most Anglicans are TEs

 

[gtsecc]

oh man, this is greta stuff! And, I can listen to it in the car. Thanks!

 

[Cjwinnit]

He's awesome, and as always, it's nice to see my diocese get the cream of the crop

But he calls himself an "evangelical" Anglican in a way that sounds as if it is a movement or "flavor" of Anglicanism. How much would his teachings represent Anglicanism on the whole?

Maybe he referring to evangelism in the first century sense ..

 

[Karl - Liberal Backslider]

Tom is certainly on the evangelical wing of the CofE, although not of the more extreme variety.

I'd say he's probably pretty representative of CofE belief; the evangelicals make up quite a large constituency here; most of them are not against the Ordination of Women, leaving that to Fundies in Frocks, I mean Forward in Faith, and Reform, which is somewhere the to Right of Attila the Hun. Reform is the organisation that the BBC invariably contacts to reliably give a reactionary point of view ; it is to mainstream Anglican evangelicalism what neo-conservatism is to the Republican party.

 

[Brian Augustyn]

Tom Wright would probably best be described by American standards as a theological moderate. He takes scripture seriously and is without question a believer, but he is by no means a literalist. In addition to being a terrific biblical scholar, he is also an expert on the founding and formation of the Christian church and the historicity of biblical events.

He writes both popular theology; check out his Every Person's Guides (to books of the bible) series and his classic, Who Is Jesus?. He also writes great, weighty theology for other scholars and serious students; his Jesus and the Victory of God is long, incredibly thorough and eye-opening. Regardless of the intended audiience, I find Wright's writing clear, concise and always well-reasoned.

He's also written a small, useful book debunking the rapture and other extreme end-times theology--though, sorry, I'm blanking on the title..

He and Marcus Borg are friends, for what that's worth, and, while acknowleging that each comes from a very different place on some questions they remain close and respectful. The two collaborated on a book a book entitled, The Meaning of Jesus; Two Visions, which was a very informative and remarkably civil debate between the two.

As much as anyone can, I'd say that Wright represents the broad spectrum of basic Christian belief in the Anglican tradition.

Tom Wright is also a dead-ringer for the actor who plays Toby on The West Wing, but with a British accent.

Brian

 

[Vance]

So far, I am highly impressed with what he has to say regarding Paul and Jesus. On that site, there is a link to a series of lectures from a New Testament Seminar he participated in. As part of it, he did a one on one discussion with James Dunn, another leading Jesus and Paul scholar. Very interesting.

 

[Aymn27]

So far, I am highly impressed with what he has to say regarding Paul and Jesus. On that site, there is a link to a series of lectures from a New Testament Seminar he participated in. As part of it, he did a one on one discussion with James Dunn, another leading Jesus and Paul scholar. Very interesting.

I am a Roman Catholic who has purchased two Wright books and downloaded and burned (onto CD, LOL) several of his lectures. He is a fantastic Scripture scholar and I honestly think his work could reconcile some of the differences between evangelical and catholic theology. I highly recommend his work to any theology junkie!! He has a great lecture on opensourcetheology.net, though you may have to look for it some..
I am very interested in the historical Jesus research but shun the modernists(Crossan et al.) who are heretical and use too much "creative" criticism. Wright blows holes through all of their humanist rubbish!! I highly recommend!!!

Aaron

 

[Vance]

Yes, I have that lectures series as well. So far, here is what I have in audio, and I have listened to all of them:

The four Jesus lectures

The Durham NT Seminar lectures in which he has two discussions with Dunn and then does a whole lecture on Romans 10

Finding and Following the True Jesus (aka "What is Wrong with Jesus?")

The Future of the People of God

Reclaiming Worship

And I also have his book with Borg and his What St. Paul Really Said, but I have not read them. I also have downloaded a number of his articles and have converted them to pdb for my Palm. I was also happy to hear in one of his lectures that he used to write articles for Bible Review, since I just recently got the entire archives of that magazine on CD and was able to search and print out a number of his articles for later reading.

I find his work on Jesus, against the Jesus Seminar, very helpful and find it echoing my own sentiments as I was reading The Five Gospels. I am still pondering his emphasis on the Kingdom narrative, but so far have little to complain about there. My only real beef so far is his over-emphasis on the role of membership in the community as an actual role in our justification.

One thing that I found odd, and this will expose my great ignorance of Anglican beliefs. I saw him quoted somewhere as considering himself a "good Calvinist", but I thought that Anglicans tended to be Arminian.

 

[Aymn27]

Yes, I have that lectures series as well. So far, here is what I have in audio, and I have listened to all of them:

The four Jesus lectures

The Durham NT Seminar lectures in which he has two discussions with Dunn and then does a whole lecture on Romans 10

Finding and Following the True Jesus (aka "What is Wrong with Jesus?")

The Future of the People of God

Reclaiming Worship

And I also have his book with Borg and his What St. Paul Really Said, but I have not read them. I also have downloaded a number of his articles and have converted them to pdb for my Palm. I was also happy to hear in one of his lectures that he used to write articles for Bible Review, since I just recently got the entire archives of that magazine on CD and was able to search and print out a number of his articles for later reading.

I find his work on Jesus, against the Jesus Seminar, very helpful and find it echoing my own sentiments as I was reading The Five Gospels. I am still pondering his emphasis on the Kingdom narrative, but so far have little to complain about there. My only real beef so far is his over-emphasis on the role of membership in the community as an actual role in our justification.

One thing that I found odd, and this will expose my great ignorance of Anglican beliefs. I saw him quoted somewhere as considering himself a "good Calvinist", but I thought that Anglicans tended to be Arminian.

Well you've done much more than I have!! You really must like him also. I would do the same if I had time, LOL...but I'm working on a grad degree and have to read too much already!!
I can't be of much help on the Calvinist vs Arminin point, I'm RC and not very familiar with the theological underpinnings of modern Anglicanism, although I gather from conversation and observation there is a full spectrum.
Salvation in community!! My Hebrew Scripture class introduced me to this whole idea...the Israelites vision of salvation was never individual but always had a communal aspect (at least according to my readings). Therefore, I was quite surprised when an evangelical introduced the same theology...I honestly haven't digested all that he unpacks in his propositions, but on the surface, nothing I've heard him say rings negatively to my Roman ears.
Thanks for posting on the subject, perhaps we could start a thread discussion and all read one of his books at the same time, that would be very interesting!!

Pax,
Aaron

 

[Vance]

Yes, I would like a "book club" type discussion of one of his books (better be one of the shorter ones!) among the group here (or elsewhere).

 

[Aymn27]

Yes, I would like a "book club" type discussion of one of his books (better be one of the shorter ones!) among the group here (or elsewhere).

I would like that also. Wanna start one?? I have a suggestion...The Challenge of Jesus: Rediscovering Who Jesus Was and Is, N.T. Wright, ISBN 0-8308-2200-3, InterVarsity Press, 1999. 197 pages. How about we post a thread and a start date for the discussion and that way people can get the gook online, etc and plan to join in. We could disect one chapter at a time(maybe just one or two per week so we don't stress out about it) and then open them up for discussion/reflection...

If this sounds cool, then let me know what date you think would be good to start and we can draw up some discussion rules, etc. I'd like to open to all "catholics" (and any others who can digest a bit of scholarly thinking) so hopefully we can get a good variety of charitable and intelligent voices involved!! This is a great idea and if you can't tell, I'm excited - I love this stuff!!

Pax,
Aaron

 

[Vance]

Yes, I am definitely "in", even if it is just you and I! Both of us coming from non-Anglican backgrounds will make it interesting, and with a few Anglicans and others as well, it could be very insightful. I would suggest allowing about two weeks or so for everyone to get the book after announcing it. Maybe we could just do an announcement on all the relevent forums and invite them here (NT Wright being Anglican and all), if our Anglican brethren whose home this forum is don't mind.

Your choice of book is fine by me, since it give me an excuse to buy another book! Actually, I had best buy TWO in order to get the sensible shipping options. :0)

Would you like to do the announcements, or shall I? Should we ask one of the mods whether this is the best forum?

 

[Aymn27]

Yes, I am definitely "in", even if it is just you and I! Both of us coming from non-Anglican backgrounds will make it interesting, and with a few Anglicans and others as well, it could be very insightful. I would suggest allowing about two weeks or so for everyone to get the book after announcing it. Maybe we could just do an announcement on all the relevent forums and invite them here (NT Wright being Anglican and all), if our Anglican brethren whose home this forum is don't mind.

Your choice of book is fine by me, since it give me an excuse to buy another book! Actually, I had best buy TWO in order to get the sensible shipping options. :0)

Would you like to do the announcements, or shall I? Should we ask one of the mods whether this is the best forum?

If you want to check with the mods and put up announcements, I will dig up some discussion rules from my class - I'm pursuing a master's in pastoral studies and we do a "group learning" type thing. Although the class is given by a RC college it is open to all denominations and the Episcopal person in my class fits right in...so I think we could use that format (it's just pretty much stuff like..using "I" statements, I believe, i think, etc..don't attack others for beliefs, etc etc...

I chose that book because it is fairly short, and though his writing is straight forward he "packs" a lot of info...maybe if this works out then we can tackle one of his big books!! LOL...

Aaron

 

[Vance]

Will do. I will contact a mod and present the idea. I have already ordered the book (along with a couple of others, just to get the better shipping, of course!).

 

[Aymn27]

Will do. I will contact a mod and present the idea. I have already ordered the book (along with a couple of others, just to get the better shipping, of course!).

Great! My wife told me the other day I needed to ebay some of my books b/c I had too many, I was like "I need them for my thesis!"- I don't think she bought it, but she didn't say anything else, LOL!!!

fellow book-a-holic
aaron

 

[Vance]

OK, I got the go-ahead from Benedictine for us to host the discussion in this forum. He also said it was within forum rules to post the same information in up to three groups. So, I was thinking about this group itself and maybe General Theology? Benedictine suggests the Semper Reformada and the Lutheran group. Maybe you could post here and I will post in the others?

Here is what I was thinking about:

"This post is to announce an upcoming group discussion of NT Wright's book: The Challenge of Jesus: Rediscovering Who Jesus Was and Is. This discussion will be hosted in the Anglican Forum and will begin in about two weeks to allow for any who are interested to get the book in hand. Our hope is to move through the book progressively and discuss each chapter or section as we go, but we have not yet set any hard and fast rules. We hope the discussion will be lively and challenging while remaining thoughtful and courteous.

NT Wright is one of the most respected New Testament Scholars of our day and tends to come at Jesus from a conservative perspective, as opposed to the "Jesus Seminar" persuasion. This book is described as somewhat of a distillation of his larger, more weighty works which, in the matters of time and expense ($10.88 in the US), is better for a discussion group such as this.

So, if you are interested, please come over to the Anglican forum to find out more about the plans as they come together and get your book ordered! Here is the full information for the book:

The Challenge of Jesus: Rediscovering Who Jesus Was and Is, N.T. Wright, ISBN 0-8308-2200-3, InterVarsity Press, 1999. 197 pages. and here is a link to the Amazon page (US flavor):

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...f=sr_1_1/103-5293396-5321443?v=glance&s=books

Hope to see you there!"

Any suggested changes before I post it around?

 

[TomUK]

I'm up for this- at least you've got one Anglican so for.

Just one addition- it think at some point your post should say something like 'Tom Wright is an Anglican theologian and a Bishop in the Church of England.'