Thursday 25 August 2011

And the missing ingredient is ...

I am currently reading through Stephen Kuhrt’s Tom Wright for Everyone and have just reached the end of chapter 3, ‘A Summary of the Theology of N T Wright’. Kuhrt has clearly read a lot of Tom Wright (which I haven’t — part of the reason for my reading his book) and has helpfully laid out Wright’s theology, as he understands it, under a series of headings.
It is a long list, but towards the end of it, I began to realize a traditional and major theological locus was missing. A quick hunt through the index confirmed this was so, though it is mentioned when Kuhrt is discussing traditional evangelical theology.
Can you see what it is? (Clue: it isn’t ‘faith’. Although that word isn’t specifically in the list either, it does get discussed under other headings.) The following is the complete list from Kuhrt:

History
Critical Realism
Story
The story of Israel
Covenant
Monotheism
Righteousness, Torah and Temple
Exile
Eschatology
Heaven
Resurrection
Praxis and symbols
Prophet
Kingdom
Repentance
Evil
Parables
The fall of Jerusalem
Messiah/Christ
Atonement
Jesus and God
The resurrection of Jesus
Gospel
Idolatry
Victory
Righteousness
Justification
Son of God
The Spirit
Lord
Parousia/appearing
Judgement
The church
Virtue
The sacraments
Prayer
The authority of God exercised through Scripture
The fifth act

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13 comments:

  1. Sanctification?

    Elizabeth Bridcut

    Wirral

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  2. Thanks Elizabeth - but he subsumes that under 'Virtue' (no reason why you should know that, of course!).

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  3. Sin?

    Matt Davis, Cambridge

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  4. Matt and Rubati, again thanks for contributing, but sin is there under 'Evil'.

    Do try again though!

    (I think you'll kick yourselves a little bit if you don't get it.)

    ;-)

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  5. And the prize goes to ..... RUBATI!

    Yeah!

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  6. PS according to the index, grace is mentioned six times. Right now I'm cooking dinner, but afterwards I will quote them for you.

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  7. These are the quotes on grace from Tom Wright for Everyone(those on pp 57 and 60 occur under the headings describing Wright's theology):

    p 13, “Within this context [his own traditional evangelical upbringing], evangelicalism seemed particularly ‘at home’ when it came to explaining certain themes, namely the identity and uniqueness of Jesus, the ‘once and for all’ nature of his atoning death, the priority of God’s grace and the need to make a response of faith, including a changed lifestyle. All these things I was taught to place great value upon and still do.”

    p 19 “It was more liberal Christians, I was taught to believe, who had ‘a weak doctrine of sin’ and this was chiefly responsible for their failure to possess beliefs similar to evangelicals about grace and the atonement.”

    p 20 “Like many worshippers, I found this process [of traditional Anglican liturgical confession] extremely helpful in leading me to acknowledge my overall need for God’s grace and to seek his forgiveness for the personal sins of which I was guilty.”

    p 57 (Topic: Judgement) “Despite the clarity of these and other passages [in Wright], this idea has been controversial; some have suggested that ‘judgement according to deeds’ is a denial of grace and ‘justification by faith’. In response, Wright argues that justification by faith is the Spirit's bringing forward of that eschatological verdict into the present, based upon the first fruit of that expected change which is people possessing the faith to proclaim that 'Jesus is Lord'.”

    p 60 (Topic: Virtue) “All brought about by God’s grace and the action of the Spirit, the supreme Christian virtues are faith, hope and especially love, because these are the things that will last into the new creation and therefore form ‘bridges’ into it from the present world order (1 Corinthians 13).”

    91 “The implication has been that making too much of an effort to lead holy lives might somehow form a denial of the need for God’s grace and the work of the Spirit. In addressing this, we have begun to emphasize that Spirit-filled and grace-driven living is precisely about the concentrated effort to work hard to anticipate the destiny that we will possess in the new creation.”

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  8. How about "Cross"? Or does that come under "Atonement", "Victory", and "Justification"?

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  9. Thanks Ian, but the prize has already gone to Rubati, see above. You're right, though, the cross is under the headings you've identified.

    (The 'correct' answer is Grace.)

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  10. I was going to say Imputation (of Righteousness), which if I understand what you're going with this, would have been more or less the same as saying Grace.

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  11. Bishop Dominic Stockford (Evangelical Connexion)26 August 2011 at 15:32

    When I have an interactive sermon during Family Services the answer is always what I say it is - despite any other correct possibility being given...

    So the answer is, must be, and shall remain 'grace'!

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