Some Light Summer Reading

Just kidding: these books are meaty!

Photo by Matias North on Unsplash

Summer is always great for reading, I think. This year in particular it’s pretty quiet at my house, with no kids around for a few months. (I’m not ready to talk about that empty nest thing yet…). So yes, I’ve been reading all sorts of fun stuff, from all the Substacks I can find, to novels, to theology and biblical studies. I’ve even enjoyed a few manuscripts of books you’ll see later this year or next.

Today you get a couple of short reviews of books I’ve recently enjoyed. Not short books, nor easy ones, but oh-so-satisfying.

Paul for the World, by Nijay K. Gupta

Leading with Bonhoeffer’s example of applying faith to the issues of real life, Gupta (Northern Seminary, author of Tell Her Story and others) makes his case for “holy worldliness”—seeing the world as God sees it, belonging wholly to him. Rather than aim for the moment we “go up” to heaven, Christians are called to grow up here, on the earth and in the communities and situations God gave us. How else will we be his “light of the world”?

Gupta makes a strong case for the pursuit of justice as the Christian’s earthly calling. With a perspective echoing NT Wright, he argues that since our eternal future is resurrection on a restored earth, the apostle Paul “had his feet firmly planted in this world, and he taught and exhorted Christians how to live in Christ for this world” (p 67). He spends the rest of the book working through various aspects of human life—politics, suffering, economics, work, friendships, etc—demonstrating how Paul taught the church to live as “a working model” of the coming kingdom (77). [To St. Columba, “colonies of heaven.”

A Colony of Heaven

I thought Gupta was especially strong in discussing ethnic diversity in the eschaton. The few clues given us in Scripture point to the presence of a beautifully diverse church—in language, color, and culture—worshiping in Revelation 7. And if that is a glimpse of our eternity, that is worth pursuing right here, right now. Such is the kingdom of God, when Christ-followers enact his righteousness here and now, denying hierarchies, racial and ethnic divisions, gender injustices, and all the divisions the world has embraced and institutionalized. “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

Among Gupta’s quotable lines:

“Rome emphasized class and worthiness; Paul underscored human dignity and equality” (118).

“To win with God, sometimes we have to lose with the world. We must know at all times which team we are playing on” (174).

Paul for the World lives up to its subtitle, which offers the church a way back to the apostolic teaching that our faith is not our ticket to heaven but the key to real life: “A Grounded Vision for Finding Meaning in This Life, Not Just the Next.”

God’s Homecoming, by N. T. Wright

“He’s in a better place… She’s with God now.” Such platitudes are so often offered to the grieving as an attempt at comfort. We all hope that our lost loved ones are at peace with God. And that desire to grasp onto a biblical idea that assures us of a peaceful afterlife has led to some pretty unbiblical ideas about our eternal future.

In God’s Homecoming, Bishop (formerly of Durham) Tom Wright offers a “panoramic pilgrimage tracing God’s homecoming promise from Genesis through Revelation.” Any book that takes the whole of Scripture to trace an idea and argue a point is more likely on the right track than one centered on a single verse. And what Wright argues compellingly is that “heaven” as the church has historically taught it is not the end goal of a Christian.

That statement alone can cause my eye to twitch as I remember my college evangelistic training: “If you died tonight and faced Jesus, and he asked you why he should let you into heaven, what would you say?” So many strategies aimed at the “where will you go when you die” scenario neglected the central truth of the Christian faith—resurrection.

When we read the Bible as a whole, Wright argues, we do not find a narrative of souls ascending a spiritual ladder to heaven, but of God coming down to dwell with us. From the garden where God would walk in the cool of the evening, to Mount Sinai where he spoke with Moses face to face, to the temple that he filled with his Shekinah glory, and then to Jesus—the “Word became human and made his home among us” (John 1:14). Throughout the narrative of Scripture, it’s always been God coming to be with us on earth. Even Revelation points to the restored and renewed heaven and earth combination, when the two will be united forever—God forever with his resurrected and perfected people.

Wright’s book is readable and engaging, and if these ideas are blowing your mind, take it slow. Walk with him through each chunk of Scripture to follow his logic. I love reading new-to-me perspectives on old assumed ideas. They aren’t all going to be right, but in this case Wright is right on target.

Get back to me with your thoughts! I’ll leave comments open for everyone.