Product Description

For years Christians have been asking, "If you died tonight, do you know where you would go?" It turns out that many believers have been giving the wrong answer. It is not heaven.

Award-winning author N. T. Wright outlines the present confusion about a Christian's future hope and shows how it is deeply intertwined with how we live today. Wright, who is one of today's premier Bible scholars, asserts that Christianity's most distinctive idea is bodily resurrection. He provides a magisterial defense for a literal resurrection of Jesus and shows how this became the cornerstone for the Christian community's hope in the bodily resurrection of all people at the end of the age. Wright then explores our expectation of "new heavens and a new earth," revealing what happens to the dead until then and what will happen with the "second coming" of Jesus. For many, including many Christians, all this will come as a great surprise.

Wright convincingly argues that what we believe about life after death directly affects what we believe about life before death. For if God intends to renew the whole creation—and if this has already begun in Jesus's resurrection—the church cannot stop at "saving souls" but must anticipate the eventual renewal by working for God's kingdom in the wider world, bringing healing and hope in the present life.

Lively and accessible, this book will surprise and excite all who are interested in the meaning of life, not only after death but before it.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #944 in Books
• Published on: 2008-02-01
• Released on: 2008-02-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 352 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Wright, one of the greatest, and certainly most prolific, Bible scholars in the world, will touch a nerve with this book. What happens when we die? How should we think about heaven, hell, purgatory and eternal life? Wright critiques the views of heaven that have become regnant in Western culture, especially the assumption of the continuance of the soul after death in a sort of blissful non-bodily existence. This is simply not Christian teaching, Wright insists. The New Testament's clear witness is to the resurrection of the body, not the migration of the soul. And not right away, but only when Jesus returns in judgment and glory. The "paradise," the experience of being "with Christ" spoken of occasionally in the scriptures, is a period of waiting for this return. But Christian teaching of life after death should really be an emphasis on "life after life after death"-the resurrection of the body, which is also the ground for all faithful political action, as the last part of this book argues. Wright's prose is as accessible as it is learned-an increasingly rare combination. No one can doubt his erudition or the greatness of the churchmanship of the Anglican Bishop of Durham. One wonders, however, at the regular citation of his own previous work. And no other scholar can get away so cleanly with continuing to propagate the "hellenization thesis," by which the early church is eventually polluted by contaminating Greek philosophical influence.
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Rob Bell, author of Velvet Elvis
"This book is N.T. Wright at his finest."

Phyllis Tickle, Beliefnet.com
A crystal-clear, powerful course-correction for all of us--Christian or otherwise. If you want to know what Easter is about, get yourself a copy of Surprised by Hope and hunker down for the read of a lifetime....literally.

Customer Reviews

Good Book
N. T. Wright is a great author and most knowledgeable within the Christian ranks. At the same time he can sometimes speak a little over my head. The book is worthwhile if you want to work while you read it.

Powerful insights & lifechanging truth
I believe this book is destined to be a "Christian classic" along the lines of C.S. Lewis's best works. Being more succinct than Wright's previous tomes, it is much easier to digest and has, in turn, a greater impact on the reader. I say this having read most of what N.T. Wright has written.

The central of truth of the kingdom of heaven being inaugurated with Christ's life, death and resurrection is one of the most powerful truths ever -- and will change our lives, if we'll let it. I am still grappling with the practical ramification of heaven being "right here" among us, albeit in a different dimension -- rather than being "out there" somewhere.

Likewise, the truth of Jesus ruling and reigning presently, in his bodily resurrected form as opposed to spirit-form, is profound. That's another one that I'm wrestling with. I can honestly say I've been energized in the last couple of weeks just pondering this.

Bottom line, this book challenges us to re-think and re-shape many of the traditional views of heaven, the resurrection, and the kingdom. And, most importantly, we are provided practical guidance on "what this all means" to our everyday lives.

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK TO ALL!

refreshing and insightful
We often view the afterlife in very narcissistic terms, as some kind of self-centered, individualistic reward for personal holiness. Bishop Wright blows that theory right out of the water. Its not about us at all, but the Kingdom of God and our expanding role in it. Having just finished this excellent book, I highly recommend it to anyone interested in learning more about what the Bible actually teaches about what resurrection really means for the life of the world. You may be surprised, as the title says, but I have no doubt that you'll also find it quite inspiring. The cost of this book is money well spent.