Confessing Evangelical

With some trepidation, I've just started checking out NT Wright on St Paul.

My established line with Wright, ever since my Reformed days, was "There's 'good' Wright (on the historical Jesus) and there's 'bad' Wright (on St Paul and justification), but overall it's simply splendid that he is Bishop of Durham". This spared me the trouble of actually reading any of his stuff, other than his book Who Was Jesus?, which I read shortly after becoming a Christian, and which did a lot to deliver me from the nonsense I'd been reading by John Shelby Spong on that subject (Wright also demolishes Barbara Thiering and AN Wilson in the same book).

However, our pastor thinks a lot of Wright - and indeed, I suspect there may be more than a tinge of Wrightian influence when our pastor starts preaching on Romans, which is coming up in the lectionary - and since I think a lot of our pastor, that's enough for me to give Wright another look. Besides, you have to respect a man who can come out with a lecture title as witty and provocative as "The Paul of History and the Apostle of Faith" (PDF).

And, gosh, isn't there a lot of it? I've started working my way down the left-hand column of the table on the NT Wright Page, and found plenty of interesting material. Being one for plunging in at the deep end, I've also reserved a copy of The New Testament and the People of God from the local library.

I've also downloaded Wright's lecture series on "Romans in a Week" (or at least, as many as are currently available), and will hopefully find the time to listen to these. Certainly his introduction in the first five or ten minutes of the first lecture was very engaging.

One article linked from the NT Wright Page, on The Shape of Justification, seems to provide a reasonably concise and introductory summary of Wright's position, and certainly one that sums up what I've (so far) found to be good and not so good. (Yes, we still have "good" Wright and "bad" Wright, but the boundary between the two may need shifting somewhat).

My initial perception is that he's more Lutheran than he thinks he is. Will try to post more on this article later today or else tomorrow.