NT Wright Interview about Heaven
I happened across a wonderful interview that Time Magazine did just recently with Bishop NT Wright. Wright, one of the foremost theologians and biblical scholars of our time (and an excellent writer for both academic and popular audiences) discusses the misconception that most Christians have about heaven.
And, I’d add, most non-Christians. Before I was a Christian, I thought that what Christians believed was that they’d go to some disembodied heaven when they died, as a reward for being good. So you can count me in as another person who had the reaction Wright describes: “in almost all cases, when I’ve explained this to people, there’s a sense of excitement and a sense of, “Why haven’t we been told this before?”"
Read the full interview here (it’s not that long).
Related posts:
- Meditating on the Apostles’ Creed, Part 2
- Listening to God
- The Romance of Celibacy
- Advent Season: Living In Between
- Speaking Up and (Not) Being Heard
2 Responses to “NT Wright Interview about Heaven”
Dr Holly Ordway came to Christ through reason, in the pursuit of truth. "In your hearts honor Christ as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect" (1 Peter 15).
She writes about her journey from atheism to orthodox Christian faith in her book "Not God's Type: A Rational Academic Finds a Radical Faith" (Moody Publishers).
Wonderful Bishop Wright! I just read a description of heaven that affirms and agrees with NT Wright in “The Reason for God, Belief in an Age of Skepticism” by Timothy Keller (highly recommend it!) Anyway, in the chapter on suffering, Keller explains that “the Bible teaches that the future is not an immaterial ‘paradise’ but a new heaven and a new earth. In Revelation 21, we do not see human beings being taken out of this world into heaven, but rather heaven coming down and cleansing, renewing, and perfecting this material world” Like NT Wright, Keller points out that in heaven all things will be put to rights. “The biblical view of things is resurrection — not a future that is just a consolation for the life we never had but a restoration . . . This means that every horrible thing that ever happened will not only be undone and repaired but will in some way make the eventual glory and joy even greater.” God’s intention for creation will be realized and all that has gone wrong will be healed.
Dostoevsky discussed (via his characters in “The Brothers Karamazov”) that some people can’t accept a God that allows evil, even as a means to a better world. Heaven doesn’t justify suffering of innocents. These people see a creation that allows evil and suffering to be an evil itself. Personally, I have a lot of sympathy with those folks and was happy to see Keller’s apologetic for suffering include a discussion of heaven. I hope you will get the book and read it. Keller explains, using a quote from The Lord of the Rings, “Sam Gamgee discovers that his friend Gandolf was not dead, but alive. He cries ‘I thought you were dead! But then I thought I was dead myself! Is everything sad going to come untrue?’ The answer of Christianity to that question is — yes. Everything sad will become untrue and it will somehow be greater for having once been broken and lost. . . It promises that we will get the life we most longed for, but it will be an infinitely more glorious world than if there had never been the need for bravery, endurance, sacrifice or salvation.”
Wow. That is so much better than floating around on clouds!
Hi Holly,
Wright brings up some interesting things and does offer helpful corrections but his analysis ignores the impact of Enoch and Elijah’s bodily translation into heaven in the OT as well as the Transfiguration where both Moses and Elijah appear bodily with Christ (n.b., Jude 9 where Michael the archangel and Satan debated about the body of Moses). As well, careful attention should be paid to Luke 16:19ff, where apparently both Lazarus and the rich man are experiencing life after death, bodily, before the end of the age (note the rich man wants Lazarus to go to his brothers and warn them, vv. 27-28–something not possible in the eternal state of the new heavens and new earth). Wright also assumes Christ’s promise to the thief on the Cross wasn’t fulfilled bodily because Christ wasn’t resurrected yet. But the text doesn’t say He couldn’t have gone bodily to Paradise. The only thing we know for sure is that He didn’t proceed from the grave in His resurrection body until the 3rd day. One should also keep in mind that ‘sleep’ as a metaphor for a Christian’s death doesn’t necessarily imply the intermediate state Wright describes. All we know for sure is it describes the period of earthly inactivity the Christian’s body experiences before his/her resurrection transformation.
Bottom line is: There’s a mystery as to the timing of all this that probably can’t be defined as neatly as Wright wishes.