becoming

From NT Wright’s response to BW3, on Tom’s earlier book “Surprised by Hope“:

BW3: …Help us connect the dots between our future hope in Kingdom come, and our present work. Is it a mere foreshadowing of Kingdom come, or an actual foretaste, and so part of that work? Does what we do now, get perfected when Jesus and the Kingdom come in full? What does it mean to be co-laborers with Christ and why should that give us hope in the present as well as for the future?

Wright: We are not building the kingdom by our own efforts, no. The Kingdom remains God’s gift, new creation, sheer grace. But, as part of that grace already poured out in Jesus Christ and by the Spirit, we are building FOR the kingdom. I use the image of the eleventh-century stonemason, probably illiterate, working away on one or two blocks of stone according to the orders given to him. He isn’t building the Cathedral; he is building FOR the Cathedral. When the master mason/architect gathers up all the small pieces of stone at which people have been working away, he will put them into the great edifice which he’s had in mind all along and which he alone can build — but FOR WHICH we can and must build in the present time. Note 1 Corinthians 3, the Temple-building picture, and the way it relates directly to 1 Cor 15.58: what you do in the Lord is NOT IN VAIN, because of the resurrection.

I have absolutely no idea how it might be that a great symphony or painting, or the small act of love and gentleness shown to an elderly patient dying in hospital, or Wilberforce campaigning to end the slave trade, or the sudden generosity which makes a street beggar happy all day — how any or all of those find a place in God’s eventual kingdom. He’s the architect, not me. He has given us instructions on the little bits of stone we are meant to be carving. How he puts them together is his business.

[Read the whole thing here]

And may I add here a passage from Calvin’s Institutes, book III, chapter 16, section 1：

Do you wish, then, to attain righteousness in Christ? You must first possess Christ; but you cannot possess him without being made partaker in his sanctification, because he cannot be divided into pieces [I Cor 1:13]. Since, therefore, it is solely by expending himself that the Lord gives us these benefits to enjoy, he bestows both of them at the same time, the one never without the other. Thus it is clear how true it is that we are justified not without works yet not through works, since in our sharing in Christ, which justifies us, sanctification is just as much included as righteousness.

新的一年，除了祝大家新年快樂之外，也為那些等到頸長的朋友帶來好消息：NT Wright 的新書出爐了！

當然，不是COQG的保羅篇，而是就他稱義觀的批評（特別是北美）所出的回應。

根據Michael Bird的透露，全書大綱如下：

1. Introduction
2. Rules of Engagement
3. First-Century Judaism: Covenant, Law and Lawcourt
4. Justification: Definitions and Puzzles
5. Galatians
6. Philippians, Corinthians, Ephesians
7. Romans
8. Conclusion

Howard Marshall的推介：

This book is a magisterial response to the recent spate of criticism directed at Tom Wright for his theology of justification. He introduces readers to the debate and outlines his position without engaging in polemic against his opponents. This sprightly and gracious, yet robust, work is Tom Wright’s carefully argued and scripturally based response to those who think that he has deeply misunderstood Paul’s doctrine of justification… This is definitely one of the most exciting and significant books that I have read this year… Strongly commended!

[HT: Euangelion]

————–
Update: IVP 那邊也出了這書北美版的資料。

Update: Trevin Wax interviewed NT Wright on his new book.

感謝的人生

歌羅西書3:12-17

不錯，保羅挑戰當時整個羅馬帝國的運作方式，但他的方式卻是出奇地和我們想象的方法截然不同！他的起步點是先告訴你，耶穌是誰？

而這點正正是我們必須留心的。當想到對抗生活中的轄制力量，我們不會自然的想到要將注意力集中在「耶穌是誰」之上。但對保羅來說，就是這個方法。而事實上，這是唯一的方法。當我們真正了解耶穌究竟是誰，它能夠改變我們怎樣看待這個世界、並我們的生活方式。我們會發現原來我們被神邀請加入一個完全不同的故事之中，對抗著這世界無所不用其極的希望引你進入的那另一個故事。

你要知道，如果我要將這篇感恩節的講章，變為向你們，為教會擴堂所作的呼籲；又或者是很快就到的Operation Christmas Child聖誕鞋盒的捐助，又或者是呼籲你為明年的差傳預算、教會的整體預算而奉獻，是很容易的。但不是啊！這不是我的意思…

講道錄音：

[audio:sermons/colossians/Col_3_12-17.mp3]

延伸閱讀：

1. 當然，要說帝國、權勢、歌羅西書，不能不看的是Brian Walsh 和Sylvia Keesmaat 的Colossians Remixed: Subverting the Empire。
2. ThanksLiving 一詞是從Wright的小書Following Jesus, p.21 而來（那正是討論歌羅西書的一章）。

早前Craig G. Bartholomew 及 Michael W. Goheen 合寫的The Drama of Scripture，是將NT Wright 在How Can The Bible Be Authoritative? 所提出，聖經作為一個包含5幕（他們之後修正為6幕）的故事，擴張和引伸的作品。我在「神與聖經」的主日學討論中，就是用The Drama of Scripture作為主要課本。

現在，他們再次合著：Living at the Crossroads: An Introduction to Christian Worldview。先看看撮要：

This engaging introduction to Christian worldview explores how Christians can live faithfully at the crossroads of Scripture and postmodern culture.

Ideal for undergraduate students and laypeople, Living at the Crossroads first lays out a brief summary of the biblical story and the most fundamental beliefs of Scripture. The book then tells the story of Western culture from the classical period to postmodernity. Authors Michael Goheen and Craig Bartholomew next analyze how Christians live in the tension that exists at the intersection of the biblical and cultural stories. They proceed to tease out the implications for key areas of life, such as education, scholarship, economics, politics, and church. The result is a deeply thoughtful yet approachable text that draws on the rich tradition of Reformational thinking but contextualizes it to a postmodern setting for a contemporary audience.

從內容看，此書將會是The Drama of Scripture 的續本，特別是補充在這個6幕劇中，我們身處的第5幕、第2場的內容。若然今日基督徒以前4幕為劇本，眼望著第6幕這故事的終局，那麼在我們在第5幕，應該怎樣演呢？The Drama of Scripture 的篇幅只能草草略過，我期待Living at the Crossroads 會有深入一點的討論。

Craig G. Bartholomew 和 Michael W. Goheen 都在加拿大作神學工作。前者是舊約學者，後者是宣教學者。

這書將於本年11月出版。

[link]

What would it look like if God were running this show? NT Wright on the Public Meaning of the Gospels.

…That telling personal observation reflects a phenomenon about which I have been increasingly concerned: that much evangelical Christianity on both sides of the Atlantic has based itself on the epistles rather than the Gospels, though often misunderstanding the epistles themselves.

Indeed, in this respect evangelicalism has simply mirrored a much larger problem: the entire Western church, both Catholic and Protestant, evangelical and liberal, charismatic and social activist, has not actually known what the Gospels are there for.

Ecclesia reformata semper reformanda est.

Read it all here.

Bibliobloggers之一的Ben Blackwell將會成為 NT Wright的Research Assistant。相信主要工作會是關於保羅神學——COQG系列的第四冊。另外從他的消息得知，Wright還在寫兩部釋經書：一是Two Horizons系列的加拉太書，另外是ICC的腓立比書。

A parable on Friendship
(in response to Hilda’s post)

A collector found a faded manuscript of music.

The collector calls a friend who is a musician. When he sees the manuscript his eyes light up for the handwriting is Mozart’s. But then he seems confused, so the collector asks what he is thinking.

“Well it looks like Mozart, but I am not familiar with the piece.” So they sit down at a piano and he begins to play it. It begins beautifully and sounds like just the sort of thing Mozart would have composed, but then as he continues to play there are places where not much happens. The piano is simply keeping time and further along there are periods of rest.

And it begins to dawn on them that what they have found is indeed a previously undiscovered Mozart piece, but piano accompaniment. The other parts are no where to be found and there is no way they can be recreated. So while what they have is quite remarkable it is also frustratingly incomplete.

The piano music only makes sense when its incompleteness is acknowledged.*

While the original parable was told to help us realize that we see our faith only in part, it is just as true to reveal our need for one another in true Friendship and Fellowship.

————
* A story told by NT Wright in his book Simply Christian (New York: Harper Collins, 2006) pp. 39-40.

偶然得知三本我曾推介過的好書，不約而同被香港天道推出了中譯。若你對關於信仰的英語書藉仍存顧慮，這是值得考慮的選擇：

1. 完全寬免—無情世界中的施予和饒恕之道——是Miroslav Volf 的Free of Charge中譯。
2. 保羅神學嶄新觀——是NT Wright 的Paul: In Fresh Perspective中譯【但不知怎攪，中譯封面卻寫Paul : New Perspectives，超失敗！】。
3. 純•基督教——是NT Wright 的Simply Christian中譯。

先指聲明，我未有看過這些中譯，不知譯筆水準如何，敬請讀者自行決定。