The Implications of N.T. Wright's The Challenge of Jesus

N.T. Wright’s book, The Challenge of Jesus, challenges the reader in various aspects of his or her life; including faith, understanding and inspiration. The reader is able to view Jesus in a different context. Within this viewpoint, Wright almost presents a time traveling experience in order to understand their world and the historical context of Jesus’ time. When grasping Wright’s purpose and argument in this book, the reader can presume that the thesis is essentially the title. Jesus presents his followers a challenge, it is comprehended best in the essence of who Jesus is, not just who we understand him to be. In the preface of Wright’s book he states three specific purposes, they include, “the historical integrity in talking about Jesus, Christian discipleship that professes to follow Jesus, and providing Christians with a vision that will transform the world” (Wright 10-11). I believe that Wright’s purpose for writing this book was to empower Christians to impact the world with love and to live out the gospel in our every day lives.

N.T. Wright focuses a lot on the history of Jesus and the time period in which he lived. This essentially aids the reader in visioning Jesus as a human being, a child, a man, and one of us. It is easier to relate to a man who has experienced life rather than a higher being in which we have no relation. Wright focuses on the Jewish mindset and establishes the tone for the book in the first chapter. He states that, “the living God would defeat evil once and for all and create a new world of justice and peace” (Wright 22). This forms a theme of redemption through the book. There are multiple allegories that can be found in this particular book as well as in the Bible. It seems as if Wright uses tho...

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...rch and every Christian to live out the message of Jesus Christ in our everyday lives.

In conclusion, I do think that Wright did an adequate job of sustaining his thesis. In some chapters I feel as if he was more thorough than others but overall he proved his purpose, which was to understand who Jesus was in light of the time period he was living in, what it means to follow Jesus and to live out the gospel in our day-to-day lives. He provided the reader with applications and challenges in light of our basis of faith. Overall I believe that Wright did a sufficient job of supporting his thesis. The book was a good challenge for many believers, I do think it would be a difficult book for those who are not very strong in their faith because of the strong allegations of either believing in the resurrection or not since it is the foundation for all of Christianity.