How God Became King Summary

In his latest book, How God Became King: The Forgotten Story of the Gospels, N.T. Wright addresses what he perceives to be a "fundamental problem deep at the heart of Christian faith and practice": "we have all forgotten what the four gospels are about" (ix). On the surface, then, the book appears to aim to help readers rediscover what the gospels are about and how to read them for all they're worth. Upon closer inspection, however, How God Became King is much more ambitious, for anyone who takes seriously Wright's proposals for how to read the gospels will find that they transform the way one reads not only the gospels, but the entire Bible.

The opening part of the book addresses the ways in which the church has struggled to read the gospels

Rather than reading the gospels through the lens of the creeds, which has led to reductionist readings of the gospels, churches can read the creeds through the lens of the gospels, which will allow the creeds to make their points in a manner more consistent with the overarching story of both scripture as a whole and the gospels. Given the growing number of churches and Christians for whom the creeds play an insignificant role or no role, I wish Wright had taken time to broaden the scope of his reflections in this chapter. Even those who don't utilize the creeds proper in worship still have unofficial creeds which shape their approach to scripture and the gospels just as significantly as the official creeds. These unofficial creeds take the form of elements of the liturgy including hymns/praise and worship songs, influential writers/preachers/pastors, or other dogmas to which they adhere (political, scientific, religious, etc.). I fear some will not make this connection and thus miss the opportunity to begin reading these unofficial creeds through the lens of the gospels rather than reading the gospels through the lens of their unofficial