Wright, N. T. History and Eschatology: Jesus and the Promise of Natural Theology. Waco, Texas: Baylor University Press, 2019, Kindle edition, 343 pgs.
Wright argues that western culture post-Enlightenment is not an entirely new phenomenon but rather a new expression of ancient Epicureanism that operates with the assumption that there is “a great gulf between God (or the gods) and the world we live in” (39). This worldview infected the church through the conclusion that the kingdom of heaven would mean the abolition of this world rather than the first century Jewish eschatological hope of a transformation of this world (94-95). A historical reading of Jesus’ context reveals a cosmology of temple in which contact between the divine and human realms is expected and an eschatology of Sabbath in which God’s age would arrive in connection with the present age (224). Into this context, Jesus’ resurrection signals God’s space (temple) and time (Sabbath) have arrived with the intent to redeem the created order not to abolish it (270). The resurrection becomes the key to an “epistemology of love” marked by a “holistic mode of knowing” that includes history as part of the natural world (270). The “broken signposts” of “justice, beauty, freedom, truth, power, spirituality, and relationships” prove in light of the resurrection to be pointing in the right direction yet unable to adequately on their own bring us to our full created purpose to reflect God’s image in the midst of God’s “vast Temple,” creation (292, 330).
In My View:
Like MacIntyre in After Virtue, Wright situates ideas in their historical context in order to make sense of them. Both MacIntyre and Wright see the Enlightenment project as fundamentally altering the way we think about the world in its displacement of the place of God or the gods in relation to the world. While MacIntyre traces the implications of this shift with respect to ethics without a telos for humanity, Wright traces the implications with respect to an epistemology that operates with a radical disjunction in cosmology and eschatology. Wright’s work is particularly helpful because it centers on the resurrection of Jesus rather than a restoration of Aristotle in its prescription. Consequently, Wright is far more optimistic about the future of western culture than MacIntyre.
Making the connection between stewardship and image bearing, Wright writes, “the Sabbath thus became ‘a weekly celebration of the creation of the world, the uncontestable enthronement of its creator, and the portentous commission of humanity to be the obedient stewards of creation” (22). He cites J.D. Levenson, Creation and the Persistence of Evil: The Jewish Drama of Divine Omnipotence (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994). 77, 82, referring to how history and cosmology work together in this regard. In Romans 8, the implication of Jesus’ work is connected to new creation. Humans are “thereby ‘conformed to his image’ (of suffering), enabled to be the genuine human beings at the heart of the cosmic Temple, reflecting the creator’s ‘glory’, as in Psalm 8, in their stewardship of creation, and summing up the priestly intercession of all creation through the High Priest himself, Jesus (Romans 8:18-30, 34)” (338). This perspective casts humanity in the role of steward over all creation as the fundamental telos of humanity. The implications are dramatic. The church has as its telos to steward the mystery of the gospel. The gospel in its new creation announcement serves to restore humanity to its telos as stewards of God’s creation. This truth reshapes how one relates to all seven of Wright’s “broken signposts.”
Wright’s version of inaugurated eschatology strikes me as hopeful and helpful in avoiding the dangers that accompany over emphasis on either the kingdom of God as “already” fulfilled or “not yet” fulfilled. If the kingdom of God is already in place, then the tendency will be to view control of all human institutions including government as a goal to be achieved through human effort and ingenuity. On the other hand, if the kingdom has not yet arrived and will come in a cataclysmic “end of history” moment, then the tendency will be to abandon human institutions and withdraw into “safe” enclaves until the Lord comes. If God is indeed working to extend his kingdom in history (this space/time as an expression of temple/Sabbath), then we are encouraged to work to redeem broken institutions and create further markers of God’s kingdom while at the same acknowledging that the completion rests in God’s hands alone.
Think These Things 