N.T. Wright on Why Christian Character Matters: A Book Review

In his well-known study Mere Christianity (Book Two), C.S. Lewis describes our world as enemy-occupied territory. Although the rightful King has landed and the ultimate victory has been assured, Satan, the “Prince of this world,” retains much of his power. The situation wherein the King’s followers find themselves today can be compared, Lewis suggests, to that of the people living in Europe between D-Day and VE-Day. Facing the enemy’s ever-increasing hostility, a hostility inflamed by desperation, they are called openly to acknowledge the rightful King and join his cause.

Anglican bishop N.T. Wright issues a similar call in his recent book After You Believe: Why Christian Character Matters (Harper Collins, 2010). But whereas Lewis spoke to unbelievers, calling them to repentance and faith, Wright addresses mature believers, people who want show their allegiance to Christ in their day-to-day life but are not always sure about the path to be followed. Wright seeks to answer their questions by pointing out that the Christian life does not consist in a legalistic rule-keeping but in a transformation of character, one that turns attention away from the self and focuses it on Christ and his cause and kingdom. That manner of living can be summarized in the word “discipleship” and is therefore cross-shaped. It is by these means that Christ’s rule will be extended and the realm of Satan curtailed. In Wright’s own words: “The message that Jesus – the crucified Jesus! – is the world’s true Lord is to be made precisely through the church’s following in his footsteps” (2 Pet. 2:21-23).

Such a life and such a character, as Christians well know, are the gift of the Holy Spirit. But as Wright suggests – and here he refreshingly departs from an influential Christian tradition – it is also a process requiring the believers’ active participation. The virtues that shape the character of Christ’s followers – the virtues of faith, hope, love, humility, chastity, patience, gentleness, and so on – must be constantly pursued and daily practiced, so that in the end they become almost second nature.

With this practical, accessible, and thoroughly biblical study Wright makes an important contribution to the growing literature on Christian lifestyle and discipleship in an increasingly secular society. Those struggling with the challenges of living the Christian life will find it both helpful and encouraging.* For a review see our “Collected Papers”; a direct link is here.

*I realize that Wright’s views on justification (the “New Perspective on Paul” and so on) raise matters of concern among many of us, but these issues have no bearing on this book, or on many of Wright’s other studies. The message of the present work is unquestionably orthodox.

Absence of Mind: A Book Review

Marilynne Robinson, a committed Christian and an admirer of John Calvin, is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist as well as a widely esteemed analyst of modern thought. Among the targets of her analytical writings is the abuse which latter-day atheists make of modern science in their attempt to denigrate both religion and the unique nature of humanity — that is, specifically, the reality of human consciousness and of the human mind.

Robinson’s target, then, is not modern science as such, but the fraudulent use of science by the enemies of religion and the cultured despisers of what Robinson calls human exceptionalism. She attacked this abuse in an earlier collection of essays (The Death of Adam, 1998, 2005), and returned to it in a distinguished lecture series at Yale University entitled Absence of Mind (Yale University Press, 2010).

We found Tim DeJong willing to review this study for us and thank him for both his careful, intelligent, and extensive analysis, and for drawing attention, in his conclusion, to the urgent need for a biblical ontology of the mind. Currently a Ph.D. student in English at The University of Western Ontario, Tim was raised in Hamilton, ON, where he received a B.A. in Comparative Literature and Philosophy from McMaster University. After spending a year in Spain to complete his M.A. in English at the Madrid Campus of Saint Louis University, he is happy to be back in beautiful south-western Ontario. He lives with his wife Biz in London, ON, where they attend Pilgrim Canadian Reformed Church.

The review can be found in our “Collected Papers”; a direct link is here.

A New Bonhoeffer Biography

Prominent among Christian martyrs of modern times is the German pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who in April 1945, just before the arrival of the allied armies, was executed on Hitler’s orders. Bonhoeffer became known not only for his heroic opposition to Hitler, but also and especially for the fact that this opposition was motivated by his allegiance to Christ. Resistance to the Nazi regime was for him a matter of following the Christ who (as Bonhoeffer writes in one of his books), when he calls a man, “bids him come and die.” His theology was a theology of discipleship and therefore not of triumph or worldly comfort, but of the cross.

The standard biography of Bonhoeffer was written shortly after the war by his friend and former student Eberhard Bethge. Since then many commentaries have appeared on Bonhoeffer’s life and work but no full-fledged new biography. That gap is now filled by Eric Metaxas (the author also of a recently published and highly acclaimed biography of William Wilberforce). In his Bonhoeffer, Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy (2010), Metaxas makes use of Bethge’s work but comes with additional material and with new insights as well. In my review I draw attention to similarities between this biography and James K.A. Smith’s Desiring the Kingdom, which I reviewed earlier. Although there are important differences between the two books, both have much to teach us about the Christian life in the world of today, and I hope that both will be read and studied among us.

For the review see our “Collected Papers”; a direct link is here.