Analysis Of Surprised By Hope

Many Christians avoid discussions on the afterlife simply because they have absolutely no clue what the future holds. This is a common excuse that Christians give, that nobody can possibly know what is going to happen. However, I believe that this gives Christians easy, reconcilable way of taking the lazy route, not actually giving much thought to the future. Both Christians and non-Christians consistently look to the future to motivate themselves to perform in the present. For example, a student looks to the future where he knows there is a possibility to graduate, which gives him motivation to write a paper for Core 150. While Christians can certainly focus on the past and doing good in thankfulness to what Christ has already done for us, it is vital for us to understand the future in order to be better stewards on this Earth. While interacting with the main themes of N.T. Wright’s Surprised by Hope, this paper will take a look at how Christians have

Wright notes that none of the gospels mention what the resurrection means for our future. They never say anything about how life after death is now possible because of the resurrection. It is not as though his follows breathe a huge sigh of relief knowing that they are now saved and rest back on the principle of being “saved by grace, though faith”. Rather, they are excited and begin to spread the gospel throughout the world. They see a renewal of their mission to go and usher in the kingdom of God. Wright obviously has a passion for the resurrection and devotes a significant portion to the word “resurrection”. According to Wright, “resurrection in its Greek, Latin, or other equivalents was never used to mean life after death … resurrection was used to denote new bodily life after whatever sort of life after death there might be.” This, again, narrows the focus on the fact that the resurrection can be used for us to understand how this world could be