Yeah, I guess I sorta like N.T. Wright...

Right now... over in Manchester, at the College where I lived and studied, one of my favourites New Testament scholars, The Rt. Rev. "Tom" Wright, is giving the annual Didbury Lectures. For those of you who don't know who this guy is that I've got a link to, he is more than just an ivory tower academic. He is a truly pastoral Bishop (for the Church of England's Diocese of Durham), and a serious public intellectual on a whole host of issues. He also likes the Bill Murray movie Groundhog Day, which just fits in with his overall excellence. I was going to say "awesomeness," but that would be taking it too far.

Nevertheless, Wright's whole theological approach is one that I value a great deal as it offers this sort of breathtaking vista of God's whole, unfolding economy with Creation. It is this precisely this cosmic perspective that seems so true to me. While I don't agree with every word Wright says, I agree profoundly that God is not just involved in an individualistic or disconnected way with you and/or me, but is rather intimately involved not only with all of us, but with the whole of His creation as well. In that way, it reminds me some other things I've heard about a Christian approach to ecology from Patriarch Bartholomew and what I look forward to reading in Dr. Wee Chong Tan's book. And all of that directly relates to both the Creation and Incarnation, and, in some mysterious way that I have not yet nor perhaps will ever understand - the Resurrection. For St. John Chrysostom says in his Paschal sermon that the whole universe has been founded upon the resurrection of Jesus Christ! I may have to attempt Torrance's Space, Time, and Incarnation and Space, Time, and Resurrection to begin that journey. Others, with more of a physics background, would no doubt be better prepared!

For those of you who know my appreciation for Bishop Wright's scholarship - my painstakingly transcribing 100s of hours of his taped lectures and my treasuring of the letter he once wrote to me (c'mon don't we all do that!?) - you get the idea. Clark Pinnock delivered the Most Moved Mover as his Didsbury lectures when I was over there, and they were excellent, but I'd love to have experienced Wright doing the Didsbury Lectures and just being around the College. (Okay, feel free to accuse me of extreme theological nerdiness or idolatry now).

I am just imagining all the excitement that must be going on right now around the College, and it brings back a lot of good memories. One good thing is that these lectures are always published, so I'll look forward to getting the book. Wright's topic is "Life After Life After Death," which sounds intriguing, but I want to hear more. His last major book, The Resurrection of the Son of God was an epic treatment of the whole Biblical understanding of life, death, heaven, hell, and - of course - resurrection. So I sit here on my lunch hour in the Old St. Stephen's building in Edmonton (it's now Government Offices), where I work (and where G.B. Caird, Wright's mentor began his career), and pray for more servants of God like N.T. Wright to come along. Any Manchester folks... let me know how it's going... I'd love to get the full story.