Monday Book Review--The New Testament in its World by N.T. Wright and Michael F. Bird
I discovered N.T. Wright during my first year in seminary (1999 when dial-up internet was cutting edge, cell phones had antennas and cable was all you had…it was a dark, dark age). I picked up The New Testament and the People of God for my Introduction to the NT class and was so intrigued I began to deduct an hour or so of sleep in order to keep reading his work. Just in that year (while working, learning Greek, and avoiding the west Texas heat that felt like Tatooine), I also worked through Jesus and the Victory of God, Who is Jesus? The Climax of the Covenant, Following Jesus, The Original Jesus, and his commentary on Colossians. I’ve read just about everything the former Bishop has penned since.
I ran across Michael Bird when I reviewed his spectacular tome Evangelical Theology. I have been gladly following his work since as well.
So, I was more than just a little geeked when I discovered that the two had joined forces to produce a New Testament introduction that essentially summarizes N.T. Wright’s thoughts into one book. The New Testament in its World (SPCK and Zondervan, 2019) functions like most introductions to the NT by covering issues like authorship, date, etc. but it differs in one very important aspect…it is written by friggin’ N.T. Wright and Michael Bird! Both scholars are talented writers who could not be boring if they tried.
The authors open their intro with a section entitled “Reading the New Testament.” The reader will quickly note the two scholars’ passion for Scripture, theology and Christ’s church. I underlined these lines from the first chapter in this section, “The New Testament, then, is the manual of mission because it is first manual of worship. We do not worship a distant or remote deity, but the God who made the world and is remaking it. Our mission is not to rescue souls away from the world, but to bring God’s rescuing love and glory into every corner of creation.” (p. 44).
As the two theologians move from subject to subject and New Testament book to book, they include a novel pedagogic tool—a series of emails from a fictitious seminary student to one of his professors asking common questions that arise from the initial challenge of studying Scripture critically. That feature, along with beautiful modern photos of the setting of the NT along with side galleys of influential scholars and ancient authors is a combination that has given the church an invaluable textbook and a simply aesthetically beautiful volume! My hat is off to the folks at SPCK and Zondervan.
I had a few quibbles with the work here and their—I follow John A.T. Robertson in dating the books from Matthew to Revelation much earlier then the authors do. I am also not nearly as skeptical about Pauline authorship in regard to the so-called “disputed letters of Paul” but so be it, these are “nit picks.”
However, I do have this against the authors: (1) The one chapter I wish were a little longer, less polemic and more systematic was the last one, “Bringing It All Together.” It is a helpful summary of Wright’s thinking but he muddies the water a bit by engaging with critics and probably turned off a lot of those who need to hear him by opening with a shot against those who hold to penal substitutionary atonement. I think the former Bishop of Durham just needs to outline what he believes in positive terms and not worry about going the Pauline route of anticipating every objection. I will try to briefly summarize his theology in a future post; (2) If the authors wanted to respond to critics, a separate chapter/s, or even a separate work would have been greatly welcome. I would like to see Wright respond as briefly as possible to a general outline of Neo-Calvinism and theological liberalism. In fact, I can picture a book in dialogue form that, for at least this Bible nerd, would be absolutely fascinating.
My objections aside, this is one PhD student in New Testament who, Lord willing, will definitely be using this wonderful tome in a future classroom. I have not perused the workbook or watched the video series that was produced in conjunction with The New Testament and its World but I hope to find time to do so in the near future. I heartily recommend you purchase this magnificent work and read through it carefully.