Summary of N. T. Wright's Surprised by Hope

By IRB Media

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#1 The world was plunged into a week of national mourning for Princess Diana in autumn 1997. People brought flowers, teddy bears, and other objects to churches, cathedrals, and town halls, and stood in line to write touching but sometimes tacky messages in books of condolence.

#2 The fifth scene is a graveyard of a different sort. As long as we see Christian hope in terms of going to heaven, the two questions are bound to appear unrelated. But if the Christian hope is for God’s new creation, there is every reason to join the two questions together.

#3 The Christian belief in life after death is a muddle, and it produces serious mistakes in our thinking, praying, liturgies, and practice. It is crucial that we understand what we believe about death and life beyond it, because it affects everything else.

#4 There is a world of difference between the Muslim who believes that a Palestinian boy killed by Israeli soldiers goes straight to heaven, and the Hindu who believes that the rigorous outworking of karma means that one must return in a different body to pursue the next stage of one’s destiny.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: May 18, 2022
• ISBN: 9798822520714

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Insights on N. T. Wright's Surprised by Hope

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The world was plunged into a week of national mourning for Princess Diana in autumn 1997. People brought flowers, teddy bears, and other objects to churches, cathedrals, and town halls, and stood in line to write touching but sometimes tacky messages in books of condolence.

#2

The fifth scene is a graveyard of a different sort. As long as we see Christian hope in terms of going to heaven, the two questions are bound to appear unrelated. But if the Christian hope is for God’s new creation, there is every reason to join the two questions together.

#3

The Christian belief in life after death is a muddle, and it produces serious mistakes in our thinking, praying, liturgies, and practice. It is crucial that we understand what we believe about death and life beyond it, because it affects everything else.

#4

There is a world of difference between the Muslim who believes that a Palestinian boy killed by Israeli soldiers goes straight to heaven, and the Hindu who believes that the rigorous outworking of karma means that one must return in a different body to pursue the next stage of one’s destiny.

#5

The First World War produced a great deal of death, and as a result, people began to reflect on its meaning. They believed that death was the end, and life beyond it was unmentionable.

#6

The main beliefs that emerge in the present climate seem to be of three types: complete annihilation, reincarnation, and a low-grade nature religion with elements of Buddhism.

#7

The funeral practices that have reappeared in our day display the same kind of confusion. The practice of putting objects in coffins along with the dead to comfort or help them in the life to come was until recently described by students of culture as an interesting practice that was now abandoned in the modern West.

#8

The most widely used Anglican sermon of the twentieth century is also one of the most misleading. It is the preface to a guide to arranging secular funerals, and it is quoted as the epitaph of thousands of people.

#9

The classic Christian position is that we believe in the resurrection of the body. But many Christian teachers and theologians have questioned the appropriateness of this language. If this is true, then death is not conquered but simply redescribed: it is the means by which the immortal soul shuffles off its mortal coil.

#10

Christianity has oscillated between seeing death as a vile enemy and a welcome friend. The Bible teaches that death is the end, but many people believe that death is the beginning of a better