N.T. Wright

I’m back in the USA. New York. The 16 hour flight home wasn’t bad at all. 1 sermon, 1.5 books, 3 albums, 1 movie, 2 meals and 5 hours of sleep. All in all a pretty productive 16 hours.

The great thing about blogs is that just about anything can pass for a blog.

So I’m going to pass off an email I just shot to a friend as a blog.

We’ve both been reading Paul: In Fresh Perspective by N.T. Wright.

I finished it on the flight from India and sent this email this morning.

From: Brian Zahnd
Sent: Saturday, January 20, 2007 5:07 AM
To: Shea Strickland
Subject: Paul (N.T. Wright)

Have you finished it yet?

I finished it on the flight from India today.

It blows my mind. It also fills me with a strange joy.

I know N.T. is definitely on to something.
He’s a seer. N.T. sees the NT as it really is.

The problem is I have to rethink everything.
I have to be born again. Take it from the top.

But I’ll do it!

I’m starting to understand why I wanted to say Come With Me.
We really are headed somewhere new.

I feel like what I’ve known as Christianity has indeed been a cheap and tawdry consumer version of the real thing.

What we’ve called Christianity is to authentic Christianity what Wal-Mart is to culture. It’s like comparing Wal-Mart to the Louvre. Which I actually said in my message on Consumer Christianity back in 2004 — but now I see it far more clearly. It’s the McDonaldization of Christianity. Billions served. But served what?*

N.T. Wright is right-on on the NT.

But most cannot understand him. He writes as a scholar. Our challenge is to figure out how to communicate what he (and others) are saying to a wider audience.

N.T. Wright has gone to the top of the list of people I want to have a conversation with. We really should go kidnap him for a couple of days.

* Which is not to say I don’t occasionally like McDonalds. After two weeks in India I’m ready for a Big Mac! But I don’t want a my Christianity to be McChurch.

BZ