NT Wright is a scholar, priest and prolific author of over 80 books. In this wide-ranging interview, Tom Wright talks about how atheism doesn’t need to destroy your faith, why he still believes the Gospel, and how his views on some things—including women in ministry—have changed.
Tom also discusses podcasting, why he’s embraced online courses, and how the Enlightenment is still getting in the way of sound theology.
Welcome to Episode 300 of the podcast. Listen and access the show notes below or search for the Carey Nieuwhof Leadership Podcast on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts and listen for free.
Guest Links
Twitter | Facebook | NT Wright Online | The New Testament in Its World
Episode Links
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NT Wright Online Course: Paul’s Letter to Philemon
Ask NT Wright Anything: What Do You Think of Jordan Peterson
Scripture Union Superkids Summer Outreach
The Aims of Jesus by NT Wright
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon
Seven Types of Atheism by John Gray
Jesus and the Victory of God by NT Wright
Surprised by Hope by NT Wright
The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah by Alfred Edersheim
Insights from NT
1. How are most Western Christians looking at the Bible incorrectly?
In the Bible, you have two spheres which we loosely call heaven and earth, which are God’s world and our world. In the Bible, these go together. They are meant to intersect, to interlock, and ultimately be married once and for all and forever. That’s the great exciting thing about biblical theology which sadly many, many Christians in our contemporary world have never begun to get their heads around.
Tom thinks that the whole biblical story works the opposite of how most modern Western Christians think. Instead of us needing to find our way upstairs to heaven, the whole point is God wants to come and dwell with his people, as we see in the last scene of the Bible where we see the New Jerusalem coming down from heaven to earth so that the dwelling of God is with his human creatures.
2. How much Bible studying should a regular believer engage?
Tom says that his level of recommended study for ordinary Christians is more simple than you might think. You should study something about how there is a God who made the world who loves the world, who made you and loves you, and through the death and resurrection of Jesus, he is reaching out and grasping you now, and saying, “Here is genuine life, and you can share it right now and forever.”
For many people, that will do for a year, for five years maybe, but some people almost at once discover that there’s this book called the Bible. When they discover the Bible they have all kinds of questions like: Who are the Pharisees? Who are the Canaanites? Who are the Samaritans? And why did they think this? And what did they mean by the Kingdom of God? When these questions come, this is where deeper study and conversations with clergy need to happen.
Quotes from Episode 300
The best academics are the people who can explain something really easily. @cnieuwhof Click To Tweet Historically, it's very, very difficult to explain why Christianity began and why it took the shape it did without the resurrection of Jesus at the middle of it. @profntwright Click To Tweet Look at the historical roots of atheism, see which cultural narratives you're buying into. @profntwright Click To Tweet In John 16, the spirit is given to hold the world to account. How does the spirit hold the world to account? Through the witness of the church. @profntwright Click To Tweet What the Spirit is going to do, the Spirit wants to do through Jesus' followers. @profntwright Click To Tweet God's purpose from the beginning was to sum up, in the Messiah, all things in heaven and on earth. @profntwright Click To TweetRead or Download the Transcript for Episode 300
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Next Episode: Albert Tate
Albert Tate is one of the funniest conference speakers and preachers around today. In this episode, Albert breaks down how he finds comedic moments and how to deliver them. In addition, Albert talks candidly about his struggle with porn, deep accountability, sex and how to handle the pressures of leadership.
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