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Why Does the Resurrection Matter?

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Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church. N.T. Wright (Harper Collins, 2008). Link to Harper Collins excerpt.
Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church. N.T. Wright (Harper Collins, 2008). Link to Harper Collins excerpt.

Yesterday, most Christians around the world celebrated the resurrection of Jesus (for Orthodox Christians, Easter isn’t until this coming Sunday).   On Facebook, Nicholas Kristof asked “How literally do you think most Christians today interpret the Resurrection? And if one doesn’t accept it literally, then is one still a Christian?”   Though I’ve been convinced of an answer to that question for many years, N. T. Wright’s Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church addresses the question of the resurrection (both Jesus’ and our own, future resurrection) in the context of current Biblical scholarship, the contemporary church, and our (post)modern culture.   I highly recommend the book, but if you’d like a sneak preview, you can listen to Wright answering the question “Why does Jesus’ Resurrection Matter?” at a Veritas Forum last year at Emory.   Part 1 and part 2 of the talk can be downloaded from the Veritas Forum website. They’re less than 90 minutes together, and well worth the time.