The Challenge of Acts by Tom Wright  

'Informative, incisive and based on good Biblical scholarship - will give readers a new confidence in the relevance of the gospel to today’s culture' 

The Challenge of Acts
By Tom Wright
SPCK
ISBN:  978-0-218-09058-7
Reviewed by Philip Clements-Jewery 

When the author writes under the name NT Wright we expect a work of academic Biblical theology. Works published under the name of Tom Wright are usually more accessible to a wider range of readers. And so it proves in his latest book.

 Based on a series of lectures originally delivered in the USA, The Challenge of Acts provides a bird’s eye view of the fifth book in the New Testament, and its perspective is fresh and illuminating. Wright’s takes in 4 chapters of Acts at a time with a separate (and longest chapter) devoted to St Paul’s speech in Athens recorded in Acts 17.16-34.

 Readers who are familiar with Tom Wright’s understanding of the trajectory of Scripture will not be surprised to discover that these themes are to be found in Acts as well: God’s fulfilment of the ancient promise to Abraham, the forgiveness of sins, the release of God’s people from their exile, and the return of God as King to Zion, and the hope of an ultimate restoration in a new creation – all of them brought to fulfilment in the incarnation, passion, resurrection and ascension of Messiah Jesus.

Finding these themes in Acts provides new insights into Luke’s presentation of the origins and development of the early church.

What is more, Wright is not only concerned with sharing his understanding of the text; he is also concerned with its practical relevance for Christians and the church today.

This is especially the case with the longest chapter dealing with Paul’s speech at Athens, where Wright makes a number of incisive comments about contemporary culture and its ‘worship’ of the gods of money, sex and power.

But the critique is not only addressed to modern secularism. The challenge is also put to the church and its collusion with the prevailing culture of our day.

In sum, this book is both informative and based on good Biblical scholarship. It is reasonably brief and easy to read. It will be found helpful by church members and preachers and teachers alike as they seek to navigate their way through contemporary challenges to Christian faith.

So, get hold of a copy. Read it, and then again. Discuss it with your friends. At many points you will find yourself thinking, ‘Well, I never saw that in Acts before!’.

Above all, receive from reading the book a new confidence in the relevance of the gospel to today’s culture. 

 

Philip Clements-Jewery is  retired Baptist minister living in Huddersfield