"Not since C.S. Lewis's classic summary of the faith, Mere Christianity, has such a wise and thorough scholar taken the time to explain...what Christianity really is and how it is practiced." This quote from the jacket of N.T. Wright's recent book Simply Christian is ambitious to say the least. Wright himself reaffirms the grandeouseness of his purpose by writing that "My aim has been to describe what Christianity is all about, both to commend it to those outside the faith and to explain it to those inside." What Wright is offering is a starting point for an understanding of the Christian faith. More than that, he delivers, building a foundation that is firmer than even Lewis' classic.
Wright's conception of Christianity revolves around the promise of new creation. His main proposal in Simply Christian is likewise that heaven and earth "overlap and interlock;" they are complementary and meant to be ultimately united. To many, this claim is likely surprising. The temptation of Gnosticism has not disappeared: to many heaven and earth are diametrically opposed worlds and Christ's victory means that earth will be cut up and burned, leaving only heaven and eternal bliss. This conception, to put it bluntly, is incorrect. As Wright affirms, heaven is not a rival world to earth, but rather an entirely different dimension which desires to break into reality as we know it and complete it. Heaven is a dimension filled with the glory of God; this glory is the beauty we can recognize in creation (Psalm 19). However, Wright posits, creational beauty as we know it is incomplete. "Beauty...slips through our fingers. We photograph the sunset, but all we get is the memory of the moment, not the moment itself...the present world really is a signpost to a larger beauty...is the authentic manuscript of one part of a masterpiece." Naturally a manuscript need not be destroyed for the masterpiece to appear, rather the manuscript is perfected until it is transformed into the masterpiece.
Coming to grips with this conception is something that has taken years for me. I, like many Christians, was taught that heaven was someplace I would go after I died. However, this idea never sat well with me, and I often felt a tension between the things I loved about this world and the abstract heaven I was supposed to look forward to. I learned to lay my love of this world's beauty and enjoyment at the feet of Christ, and then I was surprised that I would get them back(hence the title of Wright's fuller book on this topic, Surprised by Hope). A concrete hope for the renewal of this world, this creation, is now something that energizes and excites me, especially when through art I glimpse the beauty that creation can offer. How much more glorious will this world be when God finally makes his home with men (Revelation 21)!
The task of the church, therefore, "to be part of God's new creation, called to be agents of that new creation here and now. We are called to model and display that new creation in symphonies and family life, in restorative justice and poetry..." This is a vision that captures the imagination, and yet Wright, correctly, leaves the journey there. It is perhaps this simplicity and limitation which makes Simply Christian an excellent introduction to the Christian faith, yet certainly there is more to be explored. The questions which I take away from Wright's excellent book go back to the part I just quoted: how are we a part of God's creation and to what extent can we be agents (an answer which must avoid both triumphalism or the evangelical singular emphasis on witnessing). As an introduction to the first question, I opened a remarkable book by Orthodox priest and professor Alexander Schmemann named For the Life of the World. For continued study in the second question, I look forward to reading The Politics of Jesus by John Howard Yoder and Resident Aliens by Stanley Hauerwas.
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