Michelle of Life Under the Sun points out a feature article on theologian N.T. Wright in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Here’s a bit from the article:
While Christian conservatives in the United States are often defined by two issues —- abortion and homosexuality —- Wright demonstrates that they can broaden their agenda to include social justice issues.
His theology is difficult to define at first glance.
He’s argued forcefully for the role of women as leaders in the church but believes homosexuality is a sin.
He believes in the virgin birth and the bodily resurrection of Jesus but not the infallibility of the Bible.
He describes the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States as “unmitigated evil” but opposes the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
Wright says his beliefs may seem odd and contradictory in the United States but not his country. He says plenty of conservative Christians in his homeland, for example, are as passionate about relieving Third World debt as they are about defending traditional Christian doctrine.
Yes, the overwhelming success of evangelicalism in Great Britain is certainly an example for all of us.
I know the Lord does what He will do, but do you suspect anything specific has caused British apostasy?
I still think the real root was the horror of World War I. The loss of faith in all ideals, civil, traditional and theological, just cut the heart out of the culture. America, entering the war later and suffering less, was delayed in the process of disillusionment, but we’re on our way now.
Lars; you beat me to the punch; but the ‘profundity’ of Wright is only matched by the magnitude of the collapse of christianity in Britain. I’ve listened to (many) dozens of lectures by british apologists and have found them utterly useless; they offer nothing more than ‘baptized’ humanism.
– I’m not sure the collapse of christianity in britain had anything to do with the war; the intellectuals before the war had more or less the same opinion. The climate after darwin was vehemently anti-christian. (You could of course trace this back to Hume; who seems to have had a marked effect on intellectual life in Britain.)
– A very good lecture on this; Bruce Little; The genealogy of postmodernism (at Bethinking.org)
I like N.T. Wright.
If for nothing else, he sent my sons scurrying for their Bibles.