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The Last Word: Beyond the Bible Wars to a New Understanding of the Authority of Scripture | 
 enlarge | Author: N.t. Wright
Publisher: HarperOne
Category: Book
List Price: $19.95
Buy New: $11.28
You Save: $8.67 (43%)
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Rating:  21 reviews
Sales Rank: 36013
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 160
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.8
ISBN: 0060816090
Dewey Decimal Number: 220.13
EAN: 9780060816094
ASIN: 0060816090
Publication Date: December 1, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
While showing how both evangelicals and liberals misread Scripture, a leading Bible scholar and Anglican bishop shows how to restore the Bible's authority today for guiding the church through its many controversies.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 16 more reviews...
 Wright's right in this one..... mostly October 27, 2008
I am conservative, Reformed, and Evangelical in my theological and spiritual underpinnings. Anytime I agree with Brian McLaren then it is a bit unusual at best. But he and I both agree that this is a very useful, informative and challenging book. Although I wonder if McLaren really paid attention to what Wright says.
In this book Wright challenges the church to a return to the Lord's authority working through scriptures as the pathway to revitalization and empowerment. He calls for a balanced perspective which understands "tradition" (present in every communion) as the Church's dialogue with scripture over the years but which, as dialog, is to be respected, understood and continued, but not to the extent of blinding us to where tradition itself needs critiquing and perhaps augmentation.
He calls for a living, re-orientation to Scripture as THE means by which the Lord authoritatively directs His church through the ages, including this one. In doing so he directs us away from a modern & post-modern tendency to reduce scripture to a "back ground buzz which we use to give a spiritual flavor and "baptism" to our own cherished ideas about how the God's business is to be accomplished. He actually calls for Bishops (my tradition doesn't have those) to get back to the primary business of actually teaching scripture and relegating other "bureaucratic" tasks to secondary or less status. I found this willingness to critique his own peers very refreshing.
Wright makes a major contribution in reminding us that we need to be governed by an historical perspective (time and place) in our own self-understanding of the Church, its place in the "story" of God's saving work in the world. He, like most who push this emphasis, falls a bit short on communicating exactly how this understanding is to avoid an essential relativism between the ethics of the various phases of this meta-narrative. In this book he is better than most in that regard.
This book is well worth reading. For those new to Wright it is a good intro to his thinking. To those of us who have read his other works, this book is a good refresher and in many ways, a clarifying over-view of some of his more important thought.
 NT Wright does it again June 15, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Bishop Wright does it again in his delightful discussion of the authority of Scriptures. He provides a balance between those who would dismiss the Bible as just a book and those who have created an idol of some particular translation! Finally, he makes sense in his understanding of the true authority of Scripture found in God himself. The words bring understanding to the Word, the true authority.
You Would Not Be Disappointed! May 21, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
NT Wright is quite provocative in his writings. I've been sitting at the good Bishop's feet for a few years now. Not everything he writes I agree with, but this book, though small, has a huge power punch to it.
This book is about how to read and understand Scripture. It is by no means an exhaustive book on hermeneutics, but it gets at the very core of what any hermeneutic text is trying to achieve: How does Scripture communicate the Authority of God?
NT Wright will teach you how to discover the Authority of God in Scripture. He will also tell you What that Authority of God looks like.
I highly recommend this volume by NT Wright. Five stars, I say.
A valuable contribution to the subject April 8, 2008
Wright once again comes through with a very thorough and balanced review of the topic. He definitely deserves all of the accolades he receives as a New Testament "expert".
I felt the book did a wonderful job of dissecting the concepts of scriptural authority. Wright provided a number of very useful insights. I would strongly recommend the book to any serious student of scripture, not as the "last word" but as another source to consider.
The only negative was that I felt myself wanting to hear Wright take a firm, definitive stand on the issues. The book ends without "closure"; Wright intentionally leaving the reader to decide for themselves how far to take his arguments without really indicating how far he himself believes they should go. That can be both good and bad. but in this particular case, after hearing all sides of the various arguments, and being led down a particular path (but warned not to take that TOOOOOO far), you are left wanting to know how far he thinks is too far, a question he never really answers.
I would recommend the book for those interested in the concepts of scriptural authority, but I certainly would NOT make this the only book I read on that subject. It deserves to be considered along with other opinions and writings.
Here's Why This Particular Wright Book Should Be Read in Thousands of Our Small Groups February 17, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
There are many great reader reviews of N.T. Wright's "The Last Word" and I won't repeat what's been covered so well by other reviewers -- but here's another perspective that I think you may find helpful.
Over the years, I've worked with many small groups, classes, workshops and seminars -- and the trickiest issue for most participants to grasp in Bible-study sessions is an articulate understanding of how "we" as Christians regard the sacred nature of scriptures.
The truth is that "we" hold a diverse array of views, like it or not. I've worked with groups where some folks doubt everything in the Bible -- and regard the book as literature -- and groups where some folks believe the world was created in six 24-hour days.
The very best groups make room for a whole range of viewpoints -- as we all wrestle together over what scripture means for us -- and that's where this particular N.T. Wright book is so valuable. There are lots of popular books by skeptical scholars who re-interpret biblical narratives in more contemporary ways -- and there are many books available from evangelical publishing houses that take the 180-degree opposite approach.
What Wright has given us in "The Last Word" is a solid, mainline, "orthodox" approach to scriptures. Wright takes a fairly traditional view of the authority and reliability and the meaning of truth in scriptures. However, he doesn't read scriptures literally. He's not interested in fighting on either side of the biblical barricades. Instead, he's offering us all an eloquent defense of "orthodox" approaches to scripture -- in a form that any adult can read quickly and understand clearly.
That's why this book is a terrific gift to our small groups. You could build a class around this book itself -- or you could encourage someone in your small group to pass around a copy, over time, and enjoy hearing this viewpoint clearly voiced.
There are lots of great Wright books on narrower topics. And Wright himself actually encourages vigorous discussion among many points of view. His book with Marcus Borg on various interpretations of Jesus is another classic that's great for groups.
But right here, in one volume, there's the big picture of how Wright -- and millions of "orthodox" Christians -- see the Bible itself.
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