Surprised By Hope Book Review

Kirsten Esau
011179
Word Count-1323
A Review of N.T. Wright’s, “Surprised by Hope”
N.T Wright is described in Christianity Today as, “one of the most prolific biblical scholars in a generation”1. His extensive theological and biblical work is made evident in his book, “Surprised by Hope”. This book successfully corrects many misconceptions in the general and Christian population, about what the Christian hope is. In his book, “Surprised by Hope,” N.T. Wright thoroughly, precisely, and somewhat aggressively, discusses in three distinct sections, the future hope for Christians, as well as how this future hope should be the foundation for a present day hope.
In order to clearly, and completely describe the future, and present hope to a general, but more specifically misinformed Christian, audience, Wright has divided this book into
These are that death is “a horrid enemy, stalking its prey”(16) or in contrast a friend “coming to take us to a better place” (23). These misconceptions portray why Write wrote
Throughout the book, Wright continually puts down other writers (such as C.S Lewis) and people who do not believe the same way that he does. An example of this is when Wright tells those who interpret Romans 8 differently than him to, “see a therapist” (170). This attitude of condemnation towards those who have opposing views to Wright’s, significantly hinders his message of hope. Another weakness of the book is the continuous marketing Wright does for other books that he has written. Phrases such as, “as I have shown elsewhere”(60) and “as I have set out in much more detail elsewhere”(147) drastically detract from the flow of the writing and would be better left