Surprised by Hope
Tom Wright (Author)
Book Review by Simon Walpole
Any theologian who, in his work, can include a story about a widow who put two cans of toupee adhesive spray in her husband’s coffin, only for it to explode in the crematorium furnace, is truly worth reading.
With great insight Tom Wright covers a great deal of ground. He joins the dots on many issues ranging from Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection to heaven, hell and paradise, to present a stimulating and challenging picture of heaven and our relationship to it, now and in the future. He asserts continually that heaven is not ‘somewhere you go when you die’, but a present reality...
To quote a small portion of the way earth and heaven interact, he imaginatively says, “C S Lewis, of course, did a great job in the Narnia stories and elsewhere of imagining how two worlds could relate and interlock. But the generation that has grown up knowing its way around Narnia, has not usually been helped to see how to make the transition from a children’s story to the real world of grown-up Christian devotion and theology” (p127)
This book is no ivory tower theological work but it is rooted in how it shapes us, the church, and our mission to a dying world.
Whilst we may not agree with everything written, it will challenge our thinking. And whilst we still may not agree, it’s a stimulating and worthwhile process to go through.