Simply Christian, Simply Great!
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I recently finished N.T. Wright's book Simply Christian and found it a very good read. With this book Wright manages to update on two previous books: Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis and Basic Christianity by John Stott (both classics). Together with those two Wright's book rounds out a sort of literary trinity on what it means to be a Christian.
I should say that unlike the fiirst two books Wright's book, while still accessible to the outsider, is aimed staunchly at the church (not unlike a letter of Paul). Like much of his writing Wright offers a great deal of course correction in his content. In one way or another he touches on many topics including salvation, atonement, anger, small group ministry, interpretation, creation, inspiration, worship and easily a dozen others. All of these themes revolve around the thematic fulcrum of justice, spirituality, relationship and beauty. These are good lenses to look at Christianity through and are useful to Wright in highlighting points of relevance and value like our common understanding of Heaven and life after death for instance (an area where he offers "course correction").
Wright is a rare individual who combines the talents of an artist, pastor, leader and scholar. With this in mind you should know that although the book is well written and reasonably short (240 pages) it assumes one of two things: a thorough vocabulary or a willingness to broaden it through extra reading alongside this book.
One area people may be concerned about (although I am not as yet) is Wright's perspective on the doctrine of justification a.k.a. "the divine act whereby God makes humans, who are sinful and therefore worthy of condemnation, acceptable before a God who is holy and rightous." (Pocket Dictionary of Theological Terms). Specifically within the doctrine pastor and author John Piper takes issue with how he sees Wright deal with the concept of God's imputed righteousness. In fact Piper has taken so great an issue with Wright's perspective he has written an entire book entitled The Future of Justification: A Response to N.T. Wright.
Anyhow, all that to say Wright is a great writer who puts a thorough and thoughtful heart into everything he does. I have appreciated his perspective thus far and look forward to further reading. I would recommend this book to you.
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Simply Amazing
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I recommend this book for a new or old Christian, or anyone who is just interested in learning of Christian belief and practice. I've never read a book that has so clearly captured and clarified the teachings of historic Christianity with useful application for today.
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