47 pages • 1 hour read
N. T. WrightSurprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, The Resurrection, And The Mission Of The Church
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2007A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Summary
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Key Figures
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Index of Terms
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BetaAppendixChapter Summaries & Analyses
Appendix Summary: “Two Easter Sermons”
“Two Easter Sermons” is a short essay based on a piece originally published in an online journal during the Easter season. Wright presents two imaginary clergymen preaching opposing messages from their respective pulpits on Easter Sunday. Pastor Frank Gospelman asserts the reality of the bodily resurrection and the supernatural elements of Easter. He emphasizes that Jesus is truly alive and that he is preparing a place for us in heaven. At the end of our lives, we will leave this “wicked world” behind and go to heaven, where we will be reunited with Jesus and our loved ones.
Up the road, Reverend Jeremy Smoothtongue preaches a liberal Christianity: The Easter story is a metaphor, not a description of a miracle. “True Resurrection” means “breaking through old taboos,” being “inclusive,” and liberating the “true spark of life and identity hidden inside each of us” (293). Resurrection is not some supernatural miracle that happened at one time in history, but rather an “ongoing event in the liberation of humans and the world” (293).
Wright critiques both of these positions. Gospelman fails to realize that the New Testament never speaks of “going to heaven when you die” but instead speaks of bringing the “life of heaven to birth in actual, physical, earthly reality” (293). For this reason, Smoothtongue’s emphasis on improvement in this world has “a grain of truth in it” (293), but its foundations are mistaken. Jesus’ resurrection is indeed about renewed life in this world, but it is the resurrection’s bodily nature that guarantees this. At the same time, Smoothtongue’s claim that the resurrection is about “liberation from moral constraint” perverts the gospel message (294). The resurrection is about a transformative new creation, as shown in Paul’s letters to the Romans, Corinthians, and Colossians; it is not about resting content in our present way of life without having any need of God’s grace.
To conclude, Wright drives home the point that most sermons this Easter will resemble either Gospelman’s or Smoothtongue’s. Few people will hear a sermon that reflects the true message of Easter as “the renewal, the redemption, the rebirth of the entire creation” (295).
Appendix Analysis
The Appendix serves to encapsulate the entire message of Surprised by Hope in a humorous form. Wright uses the imaginary clergymen as personifications of two opposing points of view, which he has been combating throughout the book. True to his name, Frank Gospelman is earnest in defending biblical teaching as he understands it, but he actually ignores an important dimension of biblical faith, namely the idea of the renewal of creation starting here and now. Jeremy Smoothtongue sophisticatedly reinterprets miracles as metaphors and pushes for social change. However, he fails to see that such change cannot come about by mere human effort but must rest on the supernatural basis of the resurrection and moral renewal.
What both ministers lack is a full appreciation of the importance of bodily resurrection, together with an appreciation of the power of God to transform material and moral reality. Gospelman affirms the bodily resurrection but fails to follow it through to its logical conclusions about our present lives, while Smoothtongue’s religious worldview is inert because it takes the present-day material and moral state of affairs as the limit of what can exist. As is typical of his approach, Wright presents the correct view as lying in between the two extremes. The Appendix is thus a satire that points out the reality of modern Christianity in which both “liberal” and “conservative” factions may miss the actual point of the Christian message. By using satirical humor, Wright reinforces the arguments made throughout the book.
