This first illustrated Bible storybook from one of the world's top Bible scholars draws the connections across all of God's very good story, His Word. This practical Bible guide shares all your family's favorite stories, plus some that may be new, combining a theologian's expertise with engaging narratives that will draw kids into the good news of the world's greatest, truest tale.
God's Big Picture Bible Storybook
N.T. Wright wants his readers to discover the many surprising ways in which one Bible story echoes another, and how different stories contribute to the one very good and very big story of God's love for creation--a story that unfolds over the centuries, until at last it is fully revealed in the life and teaching of Jesus. Young readers will be fascinated and delighted as they hear the echoes and spot the visual links between the pictures and the stories. Not only that, they will be thrilled to discover that this is not just a story involving people who lived long ago: it's a living and enduring story, a story in which God invites them to be involved as well!
An urgent call for Christians everywhere to explore the nature of the kingdom amid the political upheaval of our day.
Should Christians be politically withdrawn, avoiding participation in politics to maintain their prophetic voice and to keep from being used as political pawns? Or should Christians be actively involved, seeking to utilize political systems to control the levers of power?
In Jesus and the Powers, N. T. Wright and Michael F. Bird call Christians everywhere to discern the nature of Christian witness in fractured political environments. In an age of ascending autocracies, in a time of fear and fragmentation, amid carnage and crises, Jesus is king, and Jesus's kingdom remains the object of the church's witness and work.
Part political theology, part biblical overview, and part church history, this book argues that building for Jesus's kingdom requires confronting empire in all its forms. This approach should orient Christians toward a form of political engagement that contributes to free democratic societies and vigorously opposes political schemes based on autocracy and nationalism. Throughout, Wright and Bird reflect on the relevance of this kingdom-oriented approach to current events, including the Russian-Ukraine conflict, the China-Taiwan tension, political turmoil in the USA, UK, and Australia, and the problem of Christian nationalism.
Think, pray, and reflect through the stories of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection.
In this volume, N. T. Wright guides you on a journey through the Gospels and Scripture, compiling passages from his widely popular New Testament for Everyone series. We reflect on the practice of lament during Lent, the celebration of Easter, and how you cannot have one without the other.
Wright provides a daily devotional for the Lent and Easter season. Each day includes his translation of a Scripture passage, words of reflection, and questions for reflection or discussion.
Many Christians believe our future in heaven is all that really matters. But that's not what the Bible teaches. In this six-session small group Bible study (DVD/digital video sold separately), premier Bible scholar N. T. Wright brings you inside the Scriptures to grasp the full, breathtaking hope Jesus offers the world, and its impact on your life today.
Gain an exciting new vision for your life on earth in light of your future in heaven. Wonderful as is the promise of heaven, a glorious hereafter is just part of what salvation is about.
What about today? Jesus called his followers the salt of the earth and the light of the world. Your life here and now is of tremendous consequence, and what you believe about the future has a direct impact on how you live in the present.
In six transforming, faith-inspiring sessions, premiere biblical scholar N. T. Wright opens your eyes to the amazing full scope of what God's Word has to say about the world to come and the world that is.
Filled with discussion questions, thoughts for reflection, and ideas for personal application, this study guide will help you get the most out of each session as you explore such questions as What is heaven really like? Is our main duty as Christians simply to help non-Christians get there? What hope does the gospel hold for this present life? In what ways does God intend for us to experience that hope personally and spread its healing power to the world around us?
Surprised by Hope provides a clearer vision both of the future and of God's kingdom at hand today.
This study provides individual and group activities, additional background material, and between-session personal studies that will enhance your experience of the video sessions.
Sessions include:
Designed for use with the Surprised by Hope Video Study (sold separately).
With a scholar's mind and a pastor's heart, Tom Wright walks you through Ephesians in this guide designed especially with everyday readers in mind. Perfect for group use or daily personal reflection, this study uses the popular inductive method combined with Wright's thoughtful insights to bring contemporary application of Scripture to life.
In this groundbreaking book--available in paperback for the first time--renowned Bible scholar, Anglican bishop, and bestselling author N. T. Wright argues that Christians have not distorted the Bible's message about heaven and what happens after we die.
For years, Christians have been asking, If you died tonight, do you know where you would go? It turns out that many believers have been giving the wrong answer. It is not heaven.
Wright outlines the present confusion about a Christian's future hope and shows how it is deeply intertwined with how we live today. Wright asserts that Christianity's most distinctive idea is bodily resurrection, and provides a magisterial defense for a literal resurrection of Jesus. Wright then explores our expectation of new heavens and a new earth, revealing what happens to the dead until then and what will happen with the second coming of Jesus. For many, including many Christians, it will come as a great surprise to learn that heaven comes to earth instead of us going to heaven.
Wright convincingly argues that what we believe about life after death directly affects what we believe about life before death. For if God intends to renew the whole creation--and if this has already begun in Jesus's resurrection--the church cannot stop at saving souls but must anticipate the eventual renewal by working for God's kingdom in the wider world, bringing healing and hope in the present life.
A new and inviting introduction to the Acts of the Apostles from New Testament scholar and theologian N. T. Wright.
Acts is a substantial book. It sits right in the middle of the New Testament, looking back to the four Gospels and ahead to the mission of the early church. It provides a framework for our understanding of the letters; but it does more than that. Acts offers a sophisticated and nuanced view of what it means to think of the gospel of Jesus, Israel's Messiah, going out into the world over which Israel's Messiah claims the status of Lord.
This Christian movement and thinking, detailed in Acts, entailed confronting the wider culture of the Greek and Roman world, as well as the culture of the Jewish world, which provides us today with an important message as we ourselves face new questions about gospel and contemporary culture.
From the renowned author of Into the Heart of Romans, N. T. Wright brings to the book of Acts his expert's eye on theological nuance and cultural context, distilling it down into an introductory commentary, perfect for anyone looking to take their own reading a little deeper and discover the profound (and often forgotten) potential of the church and the Way of Jesus Christ.
With a scholar's mind and a pastor's heart, Tom Wright walks you through Colossians and Philemon in this guide designed especially with everyday readers in mind. Perfect for group use or daily personal reflection, this study uses the popular inductive method combined with Wright's thoughtful insights to bring contemporary application of Scripture to life.
In this definitive biography, renowned Bible scholar, Anglican bishop, and bestselling author N. T. Wright offers a radical look at the apostle Paul, illuminating the humanity and remarkable achievements of this intellectual who invented Christian theology--transforming a faith and changing the world.
For centuries, Paul, the apostle who saw the light on the Road to Damascus and made a miraculous conversion from zealous Pharisee persecutor to devoted follower of Christ, has been one of the church's most widely cited saints. While his influence on Christianity has been profound, N. T. Wright argues that Bible scholars and pastors have focused so much attention on Paul's letters and theology that they have too often overlooked the essence of the man's life and the extreme unlikelihood of what he achieved.
To Wright, The problem is that Paul is central to any understanding of earliest Christianity, yet Paul was a Jew; for many generations Christians of all kinds have struggled to put this together. Wright contends that our knowledge of Paul and appreciation for his legacy cannot be complete without an understanding of his Jewish heritage. Giving us a thoughtful, in-depth exploration of the human and intellectual drama that shaped Paul, Wright provides greater clarity of the apostle's writings, thoughts, and ideas and helps us see them in a fresh, innovative way.
Paul is a compelling modern biography that reveals the apostle's greater role in Christian history--as an inventor of new paradigms for how we understand Jesus and what he accomplished--and celebrates his stature as one of the most effective and influential intellectuals in human history.
Your ticket from the twenty-first century to the era of Jesus and the first Christians. A readable, one-volume introduction placing the entire New Testament and early Christianity in its original context, written by distinguished scholar and author N. T. Wright.
An ideal guide for students, The New Testament in Its World addresses the many difficult questions faced by those studying early Christianity, including:
Written for both classroom and personal use, this book brings together decades of ground-breaking research, writing, and teaching into one volume. It presents the New Testament books--along with their subjects: Jesus and the early church--within the historical and social context of Second Temple Judaism and Greco-Roman politics and culture.
The New Testament in Its World allows you to recover the excitement of what it was like to live as Christians in the first or second centuries.
Features include:
Also available are Video and Workbook companion resources (sold separately) to enhance learning and experience the world of the New Testament.
Why did Christianity begin, and why did it take the shape it did? To answer this question - which any historian must face - renowned New Testament scholar N. T. Wright focuses on the key question: 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, sketches a map of ancient beliefs about life after death, in both the Greco-Roman 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. No modern historian has come up with a more convincing explanation. Facing this question, we are confronted to this day with the most central issues of worldview and theology.
Enlarged print edition now available! Tom Wright's eye-opening comments on the Gospel of Mark and what it might mean for us are combined, passage-by-passage, with his fresh translation of the Bible text. Making use of his true scholar's understanding, yet writing in an approachable and anecdotal style, Wright captures the urgency and excitement of Mark's Gospel in a way few writers have.
Tom Wright has undertaken a tremendous task: to provide guides to all the books of the New Testament, and to include in them his own translation of the entire text. Each short passage is followed by a highly readable discussion with background information, useful explanations and suggestions, and thoughts as to how the text can be relevant to our lives today. A glossary is included at the back of the book. The series is suitable for group study, personal study, or daily devotions.
This workbook accompanies The New Testament in Its World by N. T. Wright and Michael F. Bird. Following the textbook's structure, it offers assessment questions, exercises, and activities designed to support the students' learning experience. Reinforcing the teaching in the textbook, this workbook will not only help to enhance their understanding of the New Testament books as historical, literary, and social phenomena located in the world of early Christianity, but also guide them to think like a first-century believer while reading the text responsibly for today.
With a scholar's mind and a pastor's heart, N. T. Wright guides us through the New Testament book of Hebrews, moving us from the world in which it was lived into the world in which we must live it again. Includes twenty sessions for group or personal study.
An in-depth study of Romans from today's foremost interpreter of Paul.
Romans is often and for good reason considered a crux of Christian thought and theology, the greatest of Paul's letters. And within Romans, chapter 8 is one of the most spectacular pieces of early Christian writing.
But to many readers, Romans can be a deceptively difficult book. Its scope and basic meaning may be clear, but it can be hard to see how it all fits together into a cohesive, if complex, doctrinal argument.
N. T. Wright--widely regarded as the most influential commentator and interpreter of Paul--deftly unpacks this dense and sometimes elusive letter, detailing Paul's arguments and showing how it illuminates the Gospel from the promises to Abraham through the visions of Revelation. Wright takes a deep dive into Romans 8, showing how it illuminates so much else that God reveals in Scripture: God the Father, Christology, and the Spirit; Jesus' Messiahship, cross, resurrection, and ascension; salvation, redemption, and adoption; suffering and glory; holiness and hope.
Into the Heart of Romans will help you become familiar with the book of Romans in a deeper way that will also deepen your understanding and appreciation of the Gospel itself.
A thoughtful and provocative collection, in the vein of the intellectual spiritual classic The Weight of Glory, from N. T. Wright, the influential Bishop, Bible scholar, and bestselling author widely regarded as a modern C. S. Lewis.
An unusual combination of scholar, churchman, and leader, N. T. Wright--hailed by Newsweek as the world's leading New Testament scholar--is not only incredibly insightful, but conveys his knowledge in terms that excite and inspire Christian leaders worldwide, allowing them to see the Bible from a fresh viewpoint. In this challenging and stimulating collection of popular essays, sermons, and talks, Wright provide a series of case studies which explore how the Bible can be applied to some of the most pressing contemporary issues facing us, including:
Helpful, practical, and wise, Surprised by Scripture invites readers to examine their own hearts and minds and presents new models for understanding how to affirm the Bible in today's world--as well as new ideas and renewed energy for deepening our faith and engaging with the world around us.
Simply outstanding. It will confirm, challenge, and deepen your grasp of Christian faith and practice.--Christianity Today
Christian scholar and Anglican bishop N. T. Wright's best-known work, written in the tradition of C. S. Lewis's Mere Christianity but for today's generation--a rigorous and mind-expanding explanation of the essence of Christianity and why people believe--is available in paperback for the first time.
For two thousand years, Christianity has claimed to answer the mystery of human existence. Renowned biblical scholar and Anglican bishop N. T. Wright--the award-winning author Newsweek hails as the world's leading New Testament scholar--argues that the Christian faith still holds the answers today.
Like C. S. Lewis did in his classic Mere Christianity, Wright makes the case for Christian faith for modern readers, whether you are a believer, an agnostic, schooled in a different spiritual tradition, or are a skeptical atheist suspicious of organized religion. Using clear, simple language to convey a profound message, he walks you through the Christian faith step-by-step and question by question, and reveals how basic inquiries such as Why is justice fair? Why are so many people pursuing spirituality? Why do we crave relationship? And why is beauty so beautiful? take us into the mystery of God and his plan for us and leave believers with a reason for renewed faith.
Provocative and insightful, with a discussion guide for individuals and groups, Simply Christian offers answers to expand and guide all of our lives.
Today's leading Bible scholar, Anglican bishop, and acclaimed author N. T. Wright returns with a collection of pastoral excerpts, carefully curated from his widely celebrated books, that will inspire those wanting to cultivate a life on earth as it is in heaven.
Modern pastors and their flocks have long considered N. T. Wright a role model for being a thoughtful Christian in today's world. His bestselling books, including Simply Christian, Surprised by Hope, Simply Jesus, and After You Believe, have guided Christians in their belief and practice of the faith. Now, Christians can rely on his wisdom to guide them through each day of their lives with this thoughtful book of daily meditations, featuring short selections from his classic works.
With reflections on themes such as faith, mission, character, and God's work in the world, these daily meditations will invigorate and uplift Christians in their search to live their faith authentically and biblically in today's world.