Especially from the most knowledgeable among you PBers, I'm looking for criticism (both positive and negative) on the understanding of scripture itself set forth in Wright's New Testament and the People of God. What do you like that he says which you think can be valuable for us? What do you absolutely not like? Overall? Critical-Realism? What fits in with the confessional understanding of scripture and what doesn't? etc.

Thanks.
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>bump<

anyone?

-----Added 12/1/2008 at 02:17:45 EST-----

no one?

Can anyone direct me to any papers/articles they know of which interact with this book from a confessional perspective? Or any significant books/articles on a Reformed view of scripture published within the last few years?

Thanks.

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Paul Korte
OPC
Flint, MI

They who perceive in themselves discoveries of the divine goodness, so full and absolutely perfect, and who make them the subject of earnest meditation, will never embrace new doctrines, by which the very grace they feel so powerfully in themselves is thrown into the shade. --John Calvin

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I got about half to two-thirds through it. I liked his critique of postmodern literary criticism (directed toward historical works such as this), and also his detailed examination of various Jewish sects prior to and in the time of Jesus. He is a good historian. It was some years ago, and my memory is foggy concerning it.

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Steve Rafalsky
Elder, International Evangelical Church (Reformed)
Limassol, Cyprus

"I am set for the defense of the gospel" (Philippians 1:17)

"Strengthened with all might, according to His glorious
power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness..." (Colossians 1:11)

Blog: A Great and Terrible Love

It's been awhile since I read the book. I think he has some helpful things to say about redemptive history. The problems lie in the area of his understanding of the relationship of Second Temple Judaism and the New Testament, as well as his eisegeting most NT texts to talk about Israel in exile, which simply isn't there nearly as much as he thinks it is.

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Rev. Lane Keister
Teaching Elder, PCA, North Dakota (working out of bounds in a CRC and an RCA church)
http://greenbaggins.wordpress.com
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Paul....the silence is deafening...nuff said. Check out D.A. Carson on Wright....they were at Oxford together and he knows him inside out. Has the best analysis on Wright that I've seen.

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"Be killing sin or it will be killing you."--John Owen

Tim Goerz
Weatherford Presbyterian(PCA)
Alvord, Texas

Carson does say a lot about Wright, but I've never come across anything from him regarding Wright's views of Scripture itself.

Side note regarding Carson: I just finished going through Justification and Variegated Nomism, and I was honestly somewhat disappointed; there certainly were some wonderful essays in it, but it just wasn't quite what I was expecting.

On the Reformation21 website you'll find Carson's review of three recent books on Scripture: Peter Enns, John Webster, and Tom Wright. It's a very good review IMHO.

Wright's NTPG is classic Wright: both inspiring and infuriating. Some of his reading on second temple Judaism (2TJ) is profoundly insightful; his critical realism is very helpful etc.; However, his fundamental conclusions about 2TJ are reductionist (indeed that characterizes Wright generally as I've read him): it wasn't a monolithic movement fundamentally flawed by national righteousness (not works righteousness) as he thinks, but in reality was much more complex and varied (which was the point of Carson's volumes). NTW (IMHO) has one or two great ideas which he then pushes well beyond their limits and pulls a whole lot of other things completely out of shape.

Blessings.

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Marty
Ordained Presbyter; Currently Lecturer in Theology
Anglican Church of Australia
(Now finally back! in) Perth, Australia.
"There is nothing so necessary to draw us to repentance as good thoughts of God." (Thomas Manton)

What makes any review or critique especially difficulty is the breadth of topics that Wright covers. Some have reviewed and critiqued his work, but usually they only look at certain parts of Wright's work. Because issues of prolegomena/apologetics result in widely divergent views, there are scattered reviews of his work that make it difficult to gauge it as a whole. Some agree with his prolegomena, and not with his view of Second Temple Judaism. Some agree with his views on Second Temple Judaism, but not on exile or prolegomena. No one has really taken Wright up altogether that I have seen because that would require a book length review. Again, that is because Wright's project is so broad. Wright has really done the church a service, even if you don't agree with him. For those who are interested in interacting with what I see will be maybe the most important defense of the faith written in some time, have at it.

Here are three rather long (20-30 pages) outlines of Wright's first three books in his "Christian Origins" series. You can read these three (around 100 pages in Microsoft Word) and have a decent grasp of Wright's project.

Christian Origins and the Question of God | open source theology

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Jeremy Ellis
Member of the Village Church of Bartlett
Bartlett, IL