Simply Jesus

A New Vision of Who He Was, What He Did, and Why He Matters

By: N. T. Wright

Narrated by: James Langton

Length: 10 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's summary

We have grown used to the battles over Jesus - whether he was human or divine, whether he could do miracles or just inspire them, whether he even existed. Much of the church defends tradition, while critics take shots at the institution and its beliefs. But what if these debates have masked the real story of Jesus? What if even Jesus’s defenders have been so blinded by their focus on defending the church’s traditions that they have failed to grapple with what the New Testament really teaches?

Bible scholar, Anglican bishop, and bestselling author N. T. Wright summarizes a lifetime of study of Jesus and the New Testament in order to present for a general audience who Jesus was and is. In Simply Jesus, we are invited to hear one of our leading scholars introduce the story of the carpenter’s son from Nazareth as if we were hearing it for the first time.

“Jesus - the Jesus we might discover if we really looked,” explains Wright, “is larger, more disturbing, more urgent than we had ever imagined. We have successfully managed to hide behind other questions and to avoid the huge, world-shaking challenge of Jesus’s central claim and achievement. It is we, the churches, who have been the real reductionists. We have reduced the kingdom of God to private piety; the victory of the cross to comfort for the conscience; Easter itself to a happy, escapist ending after a sad, dark tale. Piety, conscience, and ultimate happiness are important, but not nearly as important as Jesus himself.” As the church faces the many challenges of the twenty-first century, Wright has presented a vision of Jesus that more than meets them.

©2011 Nicholas Thomas Wright (P)2011 HarperCollinsPublishers

Jesus' Ministry Makes Sense Now

How did I go my first 30 years of Christianity without knowing this? Learning about Jesus in his culture is transformational. This book has brought me a whole new depth to the gospels. All of the stories in the gospels and the way they are presented makes sense now.

Great eye-opening work!

this is my favorite work of NT right yet. He puts the vocation of Jesus in congruency with the Church, and the every-day-ness of believers, which I feel has been key to the biblical theme and God‘s desire for the world from Genesis 1:1 forward.

simply thorough!

The historical and theological integration was helpful. Is perspective, as clearly stated, will challenge many sides of issues of current thought .

Well done

This it's a wonderfully written book with a great message. The reader dies a good job bringing it to life. Well worth the time.

A great help in following Jesus

Like everything I’ve read by N T Wright this book has helped me so much as I struggle, despite my many sins, to build for the kingdom of justice and beauty that Jesus will complete. I understand the need to be. Don Shankman

Well researched...

Narration a little flat and droning but well researched material. N. T. Wright really knows his stuff.

Packed with great information

I enjoyed this. A lot to digest. Definitely one I need to go back to read and listen to again. I feel like there is so much to absorb here. I especially enjoyed the application to the church.

what a great way to be educated about our Savior !

loved it, so informative, like taking a seminary course! N.T. Wright is at the top of my must read list!

A challenging but helpful read

Wright’s take on the historical Christianity is believable and well documented and (I think) important, but I found this one of the harder of his books to track with. It would definitely not be the place to start for a non-Christian or anyone without a college degree or the equivalent.

The main idea Wright develops over the course of the book is a view of theology in the early church that differs markedly from most modern Christian theologies. The early church, along with their Jewish forefathers, believed in a final resurrection and a reconciliation and renewal of the heavens (God’s dimension) and earth (ours, and Satan’s). Wright shows how Jesus was the place where “heaven and earth met”—the living temple— and that through his resurrection he established not merely proof of an afterlife but evidence that death itself was conquered and God‘s promise of renewal was underway.

The popular modern Christian hope of “going to heaven when you die“ is a relatively small piece of the Christian hope in Wright’s telling—though he does acknowledge the existence of “paradise,” which he explains as more of a cosmic waiting room for those who have died and will one day rejoin the living in a healed and holy cosmos combining God’s dimension and ours, ruled with divine love.

The case the author makes in this book is not as clear and methodical as in some of his other works, and he leaves some holes in the story. But he covers a lot of ground in detail, and I found it a good historical study.

Some new perspectives

I enjoyed this book. It brought to mind some new perspectives on the life and times of Jesus. The narrator was a bit slow, but was easy to follow.