Buying Options

Digital List Price:	$38.92
Print List Price:	$45.00
Kindle Price:	$31.49 Save $13.51 (30%)

You've subscribed to ! We will preorder your items within 24 hours of when they become available. When new books are released, we'll charge your default payment method for the lowest price available during the pre-order period.

Update your device or payment method, cancel individual pre-orders or your subscription at
Your Memberships & Subscriptions

There was an error. We were unable to process your subscription due to an error. Please refresh and try again.

Enter a promotion code or Gift Card

Resurrection Son of God V3: Christian Origins and the Question of God by [N. T. Wright]

Follow the Author

N. T. Wright

Resurrection Son of God V3: Christian Origins and the Question of God Kindle Edition

by N. T. Wright (Author, Editor) Format: Kindle Edition

342 ratings

Book 3 of 4: Christian Origins and the Question of God

See all formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

Kindle

"Please retry"

$31.49

—

Hardcover

"Please retry"

—

$375.41

$96.99

Paperback

"Please retry"

$34.99

$18.09

This book, third in Wright's series Christian Origins and the Question of God, sketches a map of ancient beliefs about life after death, in both the Greco-Roman and Jewish worlds. It then highlights the fact that the early Christians' belief about the afterlife belonged firmly on the Jewish spectrum, while introducing several new mutations and sharper definitions. This, together with other features of early Christianity, forces the historian to read the Easter narratives in the gospels, not simply as late rationalizations of early Christian spirituality, but as accounts of two actual events: the empty tomb of Jesus and his "appearances."

Print length

860 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Fortress Press
Publication date

March 17, 2003
File size

3061 KB
Page Flip

Enabled
Word Wise

Enabled
Enhanced typesetting

Enabled
See all details

Customers who read this book also read

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

N. T. Wright
193
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $31.49
N. T. Wright
257
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $49.40
Timothy Keller
457
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $15.99
Gary R. Habermas
639
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $13.77
N. T. Wright
1,113
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $12.99
N. T. Wright
437
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $12.49

Create your FREE Amazon Business account to save up to 10% with Business-only prices and free shipping.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Tom Wright is Research Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at the University of St Andrews. His recent books include God in Public (2016), Spiritual and Religious (2017) and (with John Goldingay) The Bible for Everyone (2018). --This text refers to the paperback edition.

Review

"- 'The sweep of Wright's project as a whole is breathtaking. It is impossible to give a fair assessment of his achievement without sounding grandiose: no New Testament scholar since Bultmann has ever attempted - let alone achieved - such an innovative and comprehensive account of New Testament history and theology.' Richard B. Hays on The New Testament and the People of God --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00B1VG66E
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Fortress Press (March 17, 2003)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ March 17, 2003
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 3061 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 860 pages
Lending ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled

Best Sellers Rank: #368,157 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #283 in Christology (Kindle Store)
- #436 in Christian New Testament Study
- #1,227 in Christology (Books)

Customer Reviews:
342 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

N. T. Wright

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

N.T. WRIGHT is the former Bishop of Durham in the Church of England and one of the world’s leading Bible scholars. He is now serving as the Chair of New Testament and Early Christianity at the School of Divinity at the University of St. Andrews. For twenty years he taught New Testament studies at Cambridge, McGill and Oxford Universities. As being both one of the world’s leading Bible scholars and a popular author, he has been featured on ABC News, Dateline, The Colbert Report, and Fresh Air. His award-winning books include The Case for the Psalms, How God Became King, Simply Jesus, After You Believe, Surprised by Hope, Simply Christian, Scripture and the Authority of God, The Meaning of Jesus (co-authored with Marcus Borg), as well as being the translator for The Kingdom New Testament. He also wrote the impressive Christian Origins and the Question of God series, including The New Testament and the People of God, Jesus and the Victory of God, The Resurrection of the Son of God and most recently, Paul and the Faithfulness of God.

Customer reviews

5 star		82%
4 star		13%
3 star		4%
2 star		1%
1 star 0% (0%)		0%

How are ratings calculated?

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Jeremy Scott DeSpain

A powerful historical explanation for the developing belief in the risen Jesus!

Reviewed in the United States on December 7, 2017

Verified Purchase

In his book, "The Resurrection of the Son of God: Christian Origins and the Question of God," Nicholas Thomas (N.T.) Wright gives profound historical and theological insight into the resurrection (Easter) narrative. He considers life beyond death according to paganism, the Old Testament, Post-Biblical Judaism, and early Christianity. But, his central aim is to answer the question: Did Jesus of Nazareth really rise from the dead? He believes the answer is largely found in the question of why Christianity began, and why it formed.

Wright sets the stage in the first part of his volume by giving a powerful allegory of a king who commanded his archers to shoot at the sun. With all of their might they attempted to pierce the sun, but in vain. All of their arrows fell short. A few days later, the youngest archer noticed the reflection of the sun upon the still water. With a single shot he shattered the sun. He uses this parable to illustrate the fact that all the arrows of history cannot reach God. However, Wright helps the reader to recognize that there are reflections that must be aimed at throughout history that tell the true story of the resurrection of Jesus.

According to Wright, aiming within the worldview and language of second-Temple Judaism is crucial to hitting the target. While he points his arrows momentarily at other targets outside this scope to better comprehend the historical context, he is careful to focus his direction back on the Jewish aspects that pertain to life after death and the resurrection. Furthermore, Wright shows evidence that the idea of resurrection was incomprehensible within the mindset of pagan cultures. Rather, for many of these ancient peoples, there was no tradition of life after death. Thus for Christianity, the fundamental claim that Jesus rose again from the dead was incoherent and unbelievable.

After establishing that a majority of second-Temple Judaism believed in a coming resurrection, Wright devotes two main parts of his text to the resurrection in Pauline correspondence. He wisely unpacks the epistles to the Corinthians, especially chapter fifteen of the first epistle that openly centers on the resurrection. This section transitions from merely a Jewish tradition in a coming resurrection to the resurrection of Jesus. His attention on Paul is intentional and essential to understanding the future hope and doctrine of Christendom.

In part three, Wright reveals how little the Gospels speak of resurrection traditions, outside of the empty tomb of Jesus. Additionally, he examines the other books of the New Testament to see what they say about resurrection. He discovered that there was a sudden rise of a resurrection movement among early Christianity that was turning the world upside down. Moreover, Wright hones in on what happened to this early Christian faith during the second and early third century. He found the same conviction formed and became clearly focused throughout this period of time. Therefore, Wright begs for a historical explanation for such a developing doctrine of the resurrection.

The final parts conclude where many Christians might begin–with the Gospels. He gives an articulate description of the Easter narrative according to each gospel account. As Wright determines, there is no doubt that each of these writers told the story in their own way with their own purpose in mind. But, what is remarkable is that their testimonies were consistent. Even though Wright admits that neither the empty tomb nor the appearances of Jesus in and of themselves proves the resurrection to be true, but together, they present a powerful reason for the development of the early Christian belief.

51 people found this helpful

Helpful

Just sayin'

Exhaustion for the mind

Reviewed in the United States on December 29, 2018

Verified Purchase

The only reason I gave this 4 stars is because I was not prepared for the doctoral scholastic preparation my mind should have been geared to before I started reading. This is a personal problem. Not that of the author. I have never read any argument so thorough regarding the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The resources are exhaustive. The finger-tip recall of N.T.Wright is almost beyond human understanding. If you have the courage, and the time, try this. It is not for bed-time consumption.

33 people found this helpful

Helpful

Bill

A must read for any intellectual who wants to know more about Jesus' death and resurrection!

Reviewed in the United States on December 6, 2016

Verified Purchase

N.T. Wright’s Resurrection of the Son of God is a tour de force on the historical evidence for the resurrection of Jesus. This well-written, academic book, provides ample evidence for the historicity of the resurrection of Christ. Whether one believes in Jesus or not, this book will take you on an intriguing journey into the mind of an ancient Jew to understand the culture at the time and why Jesus made such a big mark on history.

For the average reader, the book may be a bit challenging at times. Often when one is reading a chapter, it’s easy to get a bit lost and wonder where Wright is going with all his points. Usually though, by the end of the chapter, one finds that all the points that were made earlier in the chapter come together to make a solid argument for what Wright is trying to get across. In this book, Wright discusses things such as the extent to which one can understand the historical Jesus, why Paul’s letters matter in the resurrection study, what we can ascertain from the Gospels, what we can ascertain from non-canonical texts, and so much more.

A focused reading will yield one with new insights and ideas as to why Christians can with good faith believe that Jesus actually rose from the dead. Wright also provides counterarguments to some of the most common arguments against the resurrection of Christ. Also in this reading, Wright addresses some of the supposed biblical discrepancies and tells us what impact they really do have on the historicity of Jesus’ death and resurrection. Perhaps one of N.T. Wright’s most compelling arguments is the “tomb-plus” theory that combines the evidence for the empty tomb with his port-mortem appearances. This is a great apologetic for the Christian faith and causes people to confront the person of Jesus face to face. One will come to realize that they can’t just ignore the claims of this ancient rabbi because his teachings are eternally self-involving. If Jesus truly rose from the dead as Wright tries to show, then one has to deal with the fact that Jesus called himself God, the creator of the universe.

Personally, I really enjoyed how even though this is a very academic book, Wright also spends time to bring his conclusions into the real world. This quote really took it home for me as Wright reminds us in this book, "In a world without Jesus we would have no way to successfully chart a course in life with true meaning. In a world without Jesus there would be no way to make sense of tragedies such as earthquakes, hurricanes and Adolf Hitler. And in a world without Jesus there would be no hope for the hopeless – which is all of us to one degree or another" I believe that all of us has to deal with the question of Jesus.

So, for those who are searching for hope in life, perhaps this book can start your intellectual understanding of Jesus, who is the hope of all Christian believers. For those who already believe in Jesus as their Lord and savior and feel the need to bolster their faith in God, this is the book for you. For the more academic minded reader who wants to wrestle with the identity of Jesus and understand what he came to do on this Earth, Christian or not, I highly recommend buying and reading this book!

46 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Erastos Filos

Theological Implications from the Historicity of Jesus' Resurrection

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 13, 2020

Verified Purchase

What happened on Easter morning? N.T. Wright believes that this question – the central theme of the book – is closely related to the question of why Christianity began, and why it took the shape it did. His intention was to write about the historical beginnings of Christianity and about the question of God – not an easy undertaking, given the amount of historical and theological thinking that has been invested in researching this topic, this is perhaps why the book has turned out to be that voluminous (more than 800 pages). Its purpose, Wright contends, is determined by two sub-questions: what did the early Christians think happened to Jesus, and what can we today say about the plausibility of those beliefs?

Wright is well aware of the two hundred-year fight to keep history and theology at arm’s length. The resurrection accounts in the canonical gospels have almost routinely been treated by post-Enlightenment scholarship as mere back-projections of later Christian belief, with only shaky claims to historical veracity, he claims. This understanding of Jesus’ resurrection is still widely accepted in scholarship and many mainline churches: ‘resurrection’ could mean a variety of different things; Paul, did not believe in bodily resurrection, but held a ‘spiritual’ view; the earliest Christians used ‘resurrection’ language initially to denote such a belief but underwent a kind of fantasy or hallucination; and, finally, whatever happened to Jesus’ body, it was certainly not ‘raised from the dead’ in the sense that the gospel stories seem to require. Wright challenges this by saying that the resurrection of Jesus was just as controversial nineteen hundred years ago as it is today. The discovery that dead people stay dead was not first made by the philosophers of the Enlightenment.

Wright shows that this position, fashionable as it has been, leads to enormous historical problems which disappear when treated as descriptions of what the first Christians believed actually happened. They are not the leaves on the branches of early Christianity. They look very much like the trunk from which the branches themselves sprang.

Is there an alternative explanation for the rise of the early church? Early Christianity was a ‘resurrection’ movement through and through and Wright states precisely what ‘resurrection’ involves (going through death and out into a new kind of bodily existence beyond, happening in two stages, with Jesus first and everyone else later). Early Christianity’s answer was based on a firm belief that Jesus had been raised from the dead, his tomb was empty, and several people, who had not previously been followers of Jesus, claimed to have seen him alive in a way for which the readily available language of ghosts, spirits and the like is inappropriate. If one takes away either of these historical conclusions, the belief of the early church becomes inexplicable, Wright claims.

So, what is the ultimate theological impact of the resurrection? Wright offers some hints in the final chapter: "Death—the unmaking of the Creator’s image-bearing creatures—was not seen as a good thing, but as an enemy to be defeated. ... The early Christians saw Jesus’ resurrection as the act of the covenant god, fulfilling his promises to deal with evil at last" (727). Furthermore, "[c]alling Jesus ‘son of god’ ... constituted a refusal to retreat, a determination to stop Christian discipleship turning into a private cult, a sect, a mystery religion. It launched a claim on the world ... It grew from an essentially positive view of the world, of creation. It refused to relinquish the world to the principalities and powers, but claimed even them for allegiance to the Messiah who was now the lord, the kyrios" (729). And, finally: "The resurrection, in the full Jewish and early Christian sense, is the ultimate affirmation that creation matters, that embodied human beings matter" (730).
These powerful messages, emanating from the historicity of the resurrection, offer the grounds for preaching the message of hope to a distressed and desperate humanity, a message that proves that the resurrection in fact is the reason behind the powerful start of Christianity as a world-changing grassroots movement that it truly has been.

Dr. Erastos Filos, Physicist, Brussels, Belgium

3 people found this helpful

Tymon

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 7, 2018

Verified Purchase

well worth reading

Colin Crooks

Excellent value and prompt delivery.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 26, 2021

Verified Purchase

Excellent value and prompt delivery.

Bookman