Fulcrum Book Review:‘Simply Jesus’ by Tom Wright
by James Mercer
Tom Wright’s new book ‘Simply Jesus’ has been referenced in the ongoing Forum conversation ‘Protest@ St Paul’s. Here James Mercer attempts a thumb-nail synopsis of the book, in the hope that that it will encourage us to engage with Tom Wright’s challenging and fantastically exciting insight into who Jesus is and was and what it means to be people caught up in the slipstream of the in-breaking kingdom of God.
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“Jesus—the Jesus we might discover if we really looked,” explains Tom Wright, “is larger, more disturbing, more urgent than we had ever imagined. We have successfully managed to hide behind other questions and to avoid the huge, world-shaking challenge of Jesus’ central claim and achievement. We have reduced the kingdom of God to private piety; the victory of the cross to comfort for the conscience; Easter itself to a happy, escapist ending after a sad, dark tale. Piety, conscience, and ultimate happiness are important, but not nearly as important as Jesus himself.”
In ‘Simply Jesus’, Wright seeks to answer the question: How does the church communicate the mission and accomplishments of Jesus to a world that does not know him? At the same time, he also poses the question as to how well the church understands the implications of Jesus’ kingdom agenda. Wright explains how the gospel and Jesus are so relevant, exciting, and directly related to the creative task of the church here and now. As with his previous bestselling book, ‘Simply Christian’, this book will be the default reference for anyone looking for a basic but thorough and challenging understanding of who Jesus was and what that means for us and the world today.
Tom Wright sets out to answer three simple but vital questions: who was Jesus, what did he do and why does it matter? While placing Jesus firmly within his own context, this book also shows how startlingly relevant he is to our contemporary society and the issues of the day.
'Tom Wright is, as always, brilliant at distilling immense scholarship into a vivid, clear and accessible form. This book is yet another of his great gifts to the worldwide Church.' Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury.
James Mercer is the Associate Minister within the Benefice of St Aldhelm, Purbeck.