Anglican, Catholic leaders explain what makes Christianity unique
By Rachelle Linner
11/13/2006
Catholic News Service

Anglican Bishop N.T. Wright of Durham, England, a renowned scripture scholar and professor of New Testament studies, has written an eloquent, nondenominational apologetic perfectly suited for contemporary readers. Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense is informed by Bishop Wright's impeccable scholarship and his lifelong fidelity to the Christian story, but it is neither academic nor pious.

In his clear, almost conversational, style Bishop Wright leisurely examines ideas about God and prayer, the relationship between heaven and earth, and what Christianity is ("something that happened to Jesus of Nazareth") and what it is not ("Jesus offering a wonderful moral example").

The opening chapters, "Echoes of a Voice," act like a prologue. Bishop Wright explores four recurrent themes in human experience that are intimations of God's call: "the longing for justice, the quest for spirituality, the hunger for relationships and the delight in beauty."

In the second section, "Staring at the Sun," Bishop Wright offers a solid, accessible and coherent presentation of Christian salvation history and theological beliefs. He explains the narrative of exile and return that is "the Jewish story, within which Jesus made the sense he did." the rest