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The Resurrection of the Son of God…
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The Resurrection of the Son of God (Christian Origins and the Question of God, Vol. 3) (original 2003; edition 2003)

by N. T. Wright

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1,829129,191 (4.58)1 / 15
To probe why Christianity began, and why it took the shape it did, renowned New Testament scholar N.T. Wright focuses on the key questions any historian must face: What precisely happened at Easter? What did the early Christians mean when they said that Jesus of Nazareth had been raised from the dead? What can be said today about this belief? This book, third in Wright's series Christian Origins and the Question of God, maps ancient beliefs about life after death in both the pagan and Jewish worlds. It then highlights the fact that the early Christians' belief about the afterlife belonged firmly on the Jewish spectrum, while introducing several new mutations and sharper definitions. This together with other features of early Christianity, forces the historian to read the Easter narratives in the Gospels not simply as late rationalizations of early Christian spirituality, but as accounts of two actual events: the empty tomb of Jesus and his 'appearances.' How do we explain these phenomena? The early Christians' answer was that Jesus had indeed been bodily raised from the dead; that was why they hailed him as the messianic 'son of God.' Facing this question ourselves, we are confronted to this day with the most central issues of the Christian worldview and theology.… (more)
Member:gumble18
Title:The Resurrection of the Son of God (Christian Origins and the Question of God, Vol. 3)
Authors:N. T. Wright
Info:Fortress Press (2003), Paperback, 740 pages
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The Resurrection of the Son of God by N. T. Wright (2003)

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 Christianity: What book would you give to an atheist?351 unread / 3512wonderY, December 2022

» See also 15 mentions

Showing 1-5 of 12 (next | show all)
Excellent book! ( )
  jmd862000 | Mar 28, 2023 |
Vol. 3 of Christian Origins and the Question of God
  GSHale | Jun 29, 2019 |
The third volume of Wright's magisterial series on Christian Origins and the Question of God, originally designed to be the end of the second volume, but for understandable reasons became a volume in and of itself.

Wright set out to comprehensively make a historical case for not only the possibility, but the plausibility, of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead as established in the New Testament. This large work proves necessary on account of all of the confusion, distortion, and misunderstandings which circulate about the whole concept of resurrection and how it relates to Jesus.

Wright begins with an exploration of what the word "resurrection" meant in Greco-Roman and Second Temple Jewish literature of the era, and does well at showing that everyone understood anastasis as involving the bringing back to (physical) life of the dead; this was agreed upon even when people did not think it was a good idea. He explores the philosophical premises of the Greeks and Jewish people of the day to provide a theoretical framework for understanding views on the afterlife and how resurrection would or would not fit into them, and exactly what was understood by "resurrection."

Having done this Wright then explores the use of resurrection as word and theme throughout the New Testament, beginning with Paul's letters except for portions of 1 Corinthians 15 and 2 Corinthians 4, then returning to those sections, and then the rest of the NT letters. He then turns to early Christian literature until the point at which "resurrection" begins taking on a more purely "spiritual" meaning. Throughout he shows how consistently resurrection is seen as "life after life after death", assumed to involve the physical body, and was proclaimed as such from the beginning. He then returns back to the Gospel accounts, and then makes his conclusions regarding the right historical prism through which to look at these matters, their plausibility in light of all the considered evidence, and what Jesus' resurrection demands out of the faith of Christians.

Yes, it's a massive work, but that's only because of how thoroughly warped and distorted modern thinking has become regarding the concept of resurrection and its meaning. Extremely recommended for all Christians. ( )
  deusvitae | Mar 27, 2019 |
I never thought I would read this book, it took a lot of time to finish this book. I would recommend this only if you are seriously interested in knowing, "What really happened at Easter?"

Thanks to Wright, I understand a lot about the early beliefs of life after death.
I enjoyed his writings on Early Church fathers.
All the way from Paul to Tertullian, they firmly believed and knew Christ died on the cross and bodily rose from the dead.

Resurrection has always been controversial, people in the ancient world knew, just like us, they knew that once a person died, it is a one-way street.

This book inspired me on a deeper level of my faith.

Overall, I really enjoyed Wright's writing and appreciate his work.
( )
  gottfried_leibniz | Apr 5, 2018 |
I never thought I would read this book, it took a lot of time to finish this book. I would recommend this only if you are seriously interested in knowing, "What really happened at Easter?"

Thanks to Wright, I understand a lot about the early beliefs of life after death.
I enjoyed his writings on Early Church fathers.
All the way from Paul to Tertullian, they firmly believed and knew Christ died on the cross and bodily rose from the dead.

Resurrection has always been controversial, people in the ancient world knew, just like us, they knew that once a person died, it is a one-way street.

This book inspired me on a deeper level of my faith.

Overall, I really enjoyed Wright's writing and appreciate his work.
( )
  gottfried_leibniz | Apr 5, 2018 |
Showing 1-5 of 12 (next | show all)
The Resurrection of the Son of God is the third volume in the series Christian Origins and the Question of God by prolific biblical scholar N.T. Wright. As Wright explains in his preface, this book began as the final chapter of the series’ second volume, Jesus and the Victory of God (1996). It is amazing to consider that this 800-plus page book was ori- ginally intended as a 70 page chapter. Fortunately for scholars and students, this very important topic eventually received the space it deserves.
Wright begins with a fascinating chapter that wrestles with the entire issue of historical investigation into a cornerstone of faith. While acknowledging the limitations of historical investigation, Wright does conclude that the resurrection of Jesus is not just a matter of faith, but an event to be examined and explored.
Wright then begins his survey of ancient religious and philosophical texts with a look at the pagan view of life after death. In this, Wright focuses on the Hellenistic traditions and concludes that most Greeks believed in some sort of post-death existence but explicitly denied the idea of a physical resurrection.
added by aevaughn | editJournal of Greco-Roman Christianity and Judaism, Stephen Bedard
 
The book's (admittedly crooked) trajectory zigzags through Homer (the "Old Testament" of "the ancient non-Jewish world") and Plato to the Hebrew Bible to the intertestamental literature to the epistles of Paul to the Apostolic Fathers to the Gospels. At each point along the way, Wright shows how the spectrum of pagan beliefs about the afterlife simply did not include resurrection. Indeed, within the Platonic tradition, there would have been hostility to the idea. He also shows how within Judaism, belief in bodily resurrection developed naturally as part of its fundamental affirmation of the goodness of creation and the justice of Israel's covenant God. If the body is a prison (as Plato and others taught) and death is a welcome release, resurrection (a re-embodied life after life after death) would be a bad idea. Conversely, if embodiment is "very good" (as Moses and others taught), any other kind of life after death would be second-rate.
 
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To probe why Christianity began, and why it took the shape it did, renowned New Testament scholar N.T. Wright focuses on the key questions any historian must face: What precisely happened at Easter? What did the early Christians mean when they said that Jesus of Nazareth had been raised from the dead? What can be said today about this belief? This book, third in Wright's series Christian Origins and the Question of God, maps ancient beliefs about life after death in both the pagan and Jewish worlds. It then highlights the fact that the early Christians' belief about the afterlife belonged firmly on the Jewish spectrum, while introducing several new mutations and sharper definitions. This together with other features of early Christianity, forces the historian to read the Easter narratives in the Gospels not simply as late rationalizations of early Christian spirituality, but as accounts of two actual events: the empty tomb of Jesus and his 'appearances.' How do we explain these phenomena? The early Christians' answer was that Jesus had indeed been bodily raised from the dead; that was why they hailed him as the messianic 'son of God.' Facing this question ourselves, we are confronted to this day with the most central issues of the Christian worldview and theology.

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