Summary of N. T. Wright's The Day the Revolution Began

Everest Media

Description

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.
Sample Book Insights:
#1 The death of Jesus, and the claim that it launched a revolution, was a pivotal moment in human history. It marked the end of one era and the start of another. Christians today do not see it this way, however, and most people outside the church do not see it that way either.
#2 The early Christian writers used some stunning expressions of delight and gratitude when they mentioned Jesus’s death. But by themselves, without paying attention to the larger elements in the picture, these expressions can lead us into a private or even selfish way of seeing things.
#3 The cross is a Christian symbol that represents the suffering and defeat of Jesus Christ, but for Christians it also represents the end of death and the hope of new beginnings for every human being.
#4 The British Museum received a cross made by the Eritrean and Somali refugees who were on board the boat that was wrecked off the Italian island of Lampedusa in 2013. The museum’s director, Neil McGregor, said that the cross symbolized the suffering that this small wooden object would represent.

Sujets

• Biblical Interpretation
• Biblical Criticism
• Philosophie et théologie
• New Testament
• Religion

Informations

• Publié par: Everest Media LLC
• Date de parution: 18 juillet 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9798822544338
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Insights on N. T. Wright's The Day the Revolution Began
Contents Insights from Chapter 1 Insights from Chapter 2 Insights from Chapter 3 Insights from Chapter 4 Insights from Chapter 5
Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The death of Jesus, and the claim that it launched a revolution, was a pivotal moment in human history. It marked the end of one era and the start of another. Christians today do not see it this way, however, and most people outside the church do not see it that way either.

#2

The early Christian writers used some stunning expressions of delight and gratitude when they mentioned Jesus’s death. But by themselves, without paying attention to the larger elements in the picture, these expressions can lead us into a private or even selfish way of seeing things.

#3

The cross is a Christian symbol that represents the suffering and defeat of Jesus Christ, but for Christians it also represents the end of death and the hope of new beginnings for every human being.

#4

The British Museum received a cross made by the Eritrean and Somali refugees who were on board the boat that was wrecked off the Italian island of Lampedusa in 2013. The museum’s director, Neil McGregor, said that the cross symbolized the suffering that this small wooden object would represent.

#5

The cross is a simple symbol, but it still manages to carry enormous evocative power. It seems to transcend any single explanation, and it goes way beyond the boundaries of Christian faith.

#6

The cross has a powerful impact that goes beyond any attempt to rationalize it away. It is like the beauty of a sunset or the power of falling in love. Trying to explain why it is so powerful seems beside the point.

#7

The question Why. is important, but we ask it because we observe the reality. Millions around the world take part in the simple but profound ceremony of sharing bread and wine that Jesus himself instituted less than twenty-four hours before his death.

#8

The love of God and the death of Jesus are what it’s all about. But how does it work. Can we not rest in awe and wonder, as in the third verse of another classic hymn, How Great Thou Art.

#9

The question, Why did Jesus die. has many answers. It can be answered historically by explaining why Pontius Pilate, egged on by the chief priests, decided to send Jesus to his death. It can be answered theologically by explaining what God was hoping to achieve by Jesus’s death and why that was the appropriate method of achieving it.

#10

The cross is a scandal to Jews and a folly to Gentiles, but it is the central feature of the world for Christians. It is the key to everything, and it should not be downplayed or mocked.

#11

The cross of Jesus is the center of the Christian faith, and understanding it is crucial to understanding Christianity. Theological puzzles exist, but they should not be confused with the real thing.

#12

The church as a whole is vulnerable to the twists and turns of different schemes of interpretation, which can lead into various kinds of spiritual and practical dead ends. To avoid this, the church must constantly examine its beliefs and practices to make sure they are rooted in love rather than in knowledge.

#13

The early church fathers spoke often about the cross, but never defined it. They simply stated that Jesus died for our sins, and that is all they said. They did not elaborate on how he died, only that he did.

#14

The cross is the prelude to the resurrection, whereas the Eastern churches never seem to have found it necessary to ask the kind of questions that Anselm and Abelard were addressing. The resurrection, rather than the cross, is the focus of Eastern Christianity.

#15

The sixteenth-century Reformation separated the church from the abuses connected with purgatory, which precipitated a new emphasis on the cross from a new angle. The Reformers generally rejected the doctrine of purgatory, and insisted that the Christian soul went immediately to heaven after death.

#16

The Reformers attacked the medieval doctrine of purgatory, which stated that at the point of death, the still sinful soul needed two things: further purification and further punishment. They insisted that the purification was done by bodily death and the Spirit’s present sanctifying work, and that the punishment had already been meted out in Jesus’s wrath-bearing death.

#17

The Reformers also protested against the medieval Roman Catholic doctrine of the Mass, which they believed sacrificed Jesus all over again. They argued that the priest was not actually sacrificing Jesus, but rather just watching him be sacrificed.

#18

The Reformers were trying to answer the medieval questions of how the angry God of the late medieval period could be pacified, and they replied that God’s wrath was already pacified through the death of Jesus. They did not challenge the underlying idea that the gospel was all about pacifying divine wrath.

#19

The Reformers failed to challenge the larger heaven-and-hell framework, or to think through what new creation and resurrection would actually mean. They simply gave the right answers to the wrong questions.

#20

The Western churches’ collusion with the Enlightenment led to a radical split between personal sin and actual evil in the world, which was addressed separately from any meaning given to the cross of Jesus by philosophical arguments.

#21

The cross has been tacitly assumed to have nothing to do with social and political evil, but this is wrong. The cross addresses evil, and it is God who addresses it on the cross. Any other dealing with evil must be seen in the light of the cross.

#22

The cross has been abused by Christians as a symbol of fear, and by non-Christians as a symbol of child abuse. It has been used as a sign of a military might or of a dominant culture determined to stamp out all rivals.

#23

The cross is the center of the Christian faith, but many Christians have misconstrued it. They have interpreted it as the means by which God’s saving love won the ultimate victory over all the forces of darkness.

#24

The cross has been confused with violence by many Western Christians. The Bible is not a book of moral examples, but stories are told in a sophisticated way that nudges readers into seeing serious and complex underlying patterns and narratives.

#25

The cross is often presented in relation to punishment, which is how many people understand it. But the Bible teaches that God loves sinners so much that he wants to punish them, but instead he sacrifices his son for them.

#26

The idea of an angry, bullying God who has to be appeased, bought off, and have his way with someone even if it isn’t the right person fits uncomfortably well with the way many authority figures behave.

#27

The punishment view of Jesus’s death is often connected to communities that believe in using violence to solve problems, such as global terrorism. However, some have argued that the connection between divine punishment and Jesus’s death is a modern invention.

#28

There are two alternatives to the punishment model of atonement: the paradoxical idea that on the cross Jesus won a victory over the shadowy powers that had usurped his rule over the world, or the idea that Jesus’s death is an example of love. But these don’t explain why evil still appears to reign unchecked.

#29

The exemplary meaning of the cross depends on something prior. It cannot be used as a moral example unless Jesus’s death achieved something - something that urgently needed to be done and could not be done in any other way.

#30

The New Testament is full of references to the cross, and it is from this primary evidence that we must start our discussion of the love of God. The cross is the center of God’s plan to sum up all things in heaven and earth in the Messiah.

#31

To understand the crucifixion of Jesus, we must put it in its historical context. The three contexts in which the crucifixion finds meaning are the Greco-Roman world of late antiquity, the world in which Caesar Augustus sent Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem, and the world in which Augustus’s successor, Tiberius, sent Pontius Pilate to govern Judaea.

#32

The first and greatest Greek epic, the Iliad, begins with the word wrath: Mēnin aeide, thea, Pēlēiadeō Achilēos. The Roman equivalent is the Aeneid, which begins with arms. The world of wrath and arms helps explain why anyone would want to execute a fellow human being in such a brutal fashion.

#33

Crucifixion was one of the most horrific punishments that the Romans could inflict on their subjects. It was a method of showing who was in charge, and it broke the spirit of any resistance.

#34

The early Christians believed that Jesus had gone to the lowest point possible for a human being, never mind a Jew. They believed that the crucifixion was part of the strange, dark divine plan in which the shame and horror were part of the intended meaning.

#35

The Romans did not invent crucifixion, but they made it their own, and it became the death of choice for two categories of undesirables in particular: slaves and rebels. The point was emphasized by the harsh and degrading treatment that preceded crucifixion.

#36

The cross was a notorious Roman punishment, and Jesus grew up under its shadow. When he told his followers to pick up their own crosses and follow him, they would not have heard this as a metaphor.

#37

The Romans used crucifixion as a way of mocking a victim with social or political ambitions. The early Christians, however, gave Jesus’s cross meanings that were deep, rich, and revolutionary.