Surprised by Hope - by N T Wright (Paperback)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

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. Award-winning author N. T. Wright outlines the present confusion about a Christian's future hope and shows how it is deeply intertwined with how we live today. Wright, who is one of today's premier Bible scholars, asserts that Christianity's most distinctive idea is bodily resurrection. He provides a magisterial defense for a literal resurrection of Jesus and shows how this became the cornerstone for the Christian community's hope in the bodily resurrection of all people at the end of the age. 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, all this will come as a great surprise. 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. Lively and accessible, this book will surprise and excite all who are interested in the meaning of life, not only after death but before it.

From the Back Cover

Christians Don't Go to Heaven

Heaven Comes Here

Review Quotes

"This book is N.T. Wright at his finest: dismantling the tired old theologies of escapism and evacuation to help a whole generation of us more clearly grasp a Jesus revolution for here, now, today." - Rob Bell, author of Velvet Elvis

"This book is N.T. Wright at his finest." - Rob Bell, author of Velvet Elvis

"An important interpretive contribution to an ongoing theological-pastoral task." - Walter Brueggemann, Professor Emeritus of Old Testament, Columbia Seminary

"Wright's unwavering faith in the resurrection is quite evident as he defends the Easter narratives on historical and theological grounds." - America Magazine

A crystal-clear, powerful course-correction for all of us--Christian or otherwise. If you want to know what Easter is about, get yourself a copy of Surprised by Hope and hunker down for the read of a lifetime....literally. - Phyllis Tickle, Beliefnet.com

"In calling Christians to an epistemology of love and a re-emphasis of the Easter season, Wright knocked it out of the park." - Beliefnet (A "Top Religious Book of the Year")

His conclusions are both simple and world-shaking - Library Journal

"N.T. Wright can write. . . when it comes to questions of Christ's resurrection and what that means, no one is more persuasive. Wright's new book, Surprised by Hope, builds on C.S. Lewis' succinct defense of the faith and takes it to a new level." - World Magazine

This book will be widely read because it stirs together Scripture, tradition, art and world affairs with pleasing metaphors and public courage. - The Dallas Morning News