October 25, 2006
Most Christians would agree that the Bible provides a basis for mission. But Rev. Dr. Chris Wright, in his new book, The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible’s Grand Narrative, boldly maintains that that the reverse is actually true-there is, in fact, a missional basis for the Bible! The entire Bible is generated by and is all about God’s mission.
Wright contends that in order to understand the Bible, we need a missional hermeneutic of the Bible, an interpretive perspective that is in tune with this great missional theme. We need to see the “big picture” of God’s mission and how the familiar bits and pieces fit into the grand narrative of Scripture.
Beginning with the Old Testament and the groundwork it lays for understanding who God is, what he has called his people to be and do, and how the nations fit into God’s mission, Wright gives us a new hermeneutical perspective on Scripture. This new perspective provides a solid and expansive basis for holistic mission. Wright emphasizes throughout a holistic mission as the proper shape of Christian mission. God’s mission is to reclaim the world-and that includes the created order-and God’s people have a designated role to play in that mission.
Expected release: November 2006
“This marvelous book is all I hoped and expected, and more. Chris Wright has spent thirty years combining an academic involvement with the Old Testament and a commitment to God’s mission in the world. We are so fortunate to have the mature fruit of a lifetime’s reflection on the missional nature of the Bible by this outstanding teacher, scholar and missionary theologian. It threatens to revolutionize what people usually mean by the missional aspect of the Scriptures. And it also threatens to revolutionize understandings of the Scriptures by its demonstration that they are, through and through, a missional document.”
-John Goldingay, author of Old Testament Theology and professor of Old Testament, Fuller Theological Seminary
For a complete bibliography of the Rev. Dr. Chris Wright, click here ->>