Scan barcode
stwyly's review
5.0
Simply Good News is an absolute must read for any person in any kind of church leadership wherein they are preaching or teaching on a regular basis. The understanding and definition of terms is absolutely necessary as we teach, and the term "Gospel" has been hi-jacked through the years to mean much less than it really does. Wright masterfully, and accessibly deconstructs, and then reconstructs the term based off of the way it was used in the 1st Century.
This is by far the most accessible and easy to read book I have worked through by Wright. However, don’t let its ease be mistaken for a lack of depth. It’s popular level is part of what makes it so important, as it eliminates the excuse that it is too heady for the layman to read and understand.
This is by far the most accessible and easy to read book I have worked through by Wright. However, don’t let its ease be mistaken for a lack of depth. It’s popular level is part of what makes it so important, as it eliminates the excuse that it is too heady for the layman to read and understand.
amgadagaiby11's review
3.0
I liked the author's deep knowledge of the bible in its original context and how he articulates the meaning of the good news shared by the first century Christians today. Furthermore, it's critical of some of the modern phenomena that plagued christianity in the west for the last few centuries and proposes a way out.
skitch41's review
4.0
When you have read a lot of N.T. Wright, as I have, you tend to pick up on his style, his overarching theme. Sometimes this works effectively, other times it does not. In this book, N.T. Wright's overarching theme works beautifully. By focusing on the Gospel message, not the just the Gospel books (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) and not just on Jesus himself, as he has done in previous works, N.T. Wright is able to encompass everything in the New Testament that he has been saying for some time now, simplify it without losing any of its complexity, and infuse it with his characteristic awe and wonder in the God of the Bible, His creation, and His redemptive plan. The basic theme of this book, and much of N.T. Wright's other books, is this: the Gospel message is that Jesus' death and resurrection is God fulfilling His promise from ancient times to establish His kingdom and His personal rule "on Earth as in Heaven." While this encompasses saving, or setting apart, people to proclaim this message, this good news, the point was never to be saved so that people could go to heaven, a slight skewing of the Gospel message by Enlightenment philosophy as Mr. Wright explains. Scripture, and particularly Revelations 21 and 22, declares that God is going to bring Heaven to Earth, not bring us out of Earth to Heaven. Once the Gospel message is seen in this way, it may very well change how you read your Bible, see the world now and act in it. This can be a very complicated topic and Mr. Wright hasn't always done a great job of explaining it in past books. But here he has perfected and simplified things by broadening his scope. If you have never read N.T. Wright, I would highly recommend this as a good starting place.
(Postscript: As well as read this book, I also took part in Mr. Wright's online class that used this book as its basis. If you are thinking about using this book for a group study or just want to dive in a little deeper, I highly recommend that you check out https://www.udemy.com/simply-good-news/learn/#/, or go to his main website for his online class, www.ntwrightonline.org, for a link to this class and other online classes available now and in the future.)
(Postscript: As well as read this book, I also took part in Mr. Wright's online class that used this book as its basis. If you are thinking about using this book for a group study or just want to dive in a little deeper, I highly recommend that you check out https://www.udemy.com/simply-good-news/learn/#/, or go to his main website for his online class, www.ntwrightonline.org, for a link to this class and other online classes available now and in the future.)
vanessav's review
3.0
It took me a bit to get into this book, because the beginning was a bit too much of old news for me. However, it picked up and gave me some new ideas and questions to think about after about page 40.
More...