Almost all the early Christian Fathers were opposed to the death penalty, even though it was of course standard practice across the ancient world. N. T. Wright Read Quote
One of the things I find depressing about some of the upper echelons of Anglicanism on both sides of the Atlantic is that it’s sort of taken for granted that we all basically know what’s in the Bible, and so we just glance at a few verses for devotional purposes and then get on to the real business. N. T. Wright Read Quote
It’s very easy for a church just to slide along from week to week, taking it for granted that we do our services like this and that, and we celebrate the sacraments like this and that. N. T. Wright Read Quote
I didn’t write much until I turned 40. Up until then I felt constrained by a sense of the discipline of New Testament studies and a sense of the ruling elite in theology and biblical studies. N. T. Wright Read Quote
Most of the things that really matter require faith. ‘How do I know that my wife loves me?’ ‘How do I know that Mozart’s ‘Jupiter Symphony’ is sublime and beautiful?’ There are all sorts of things which come at a more lowly level than that – ‘How do I know that two plus two equals four?’ There are different layers, different types of knowing. N. T. Wright Read Quote
Heard in full sound, the Gospels tell about the establishment of a theocracy, and portray what theocracy looks like with Jesus as king. N. T. Wright Read Quote
Of course there are people who think of ‘heaven’ as a kind of pie-in-the-sky dream of an afterlife to make the thought of dying less awful. No doubt that’s a problem as old as the human race. N. T. Wright Read Quote
The question of Heaven, the question of what happens after death, is one which a lot of people in our culture try to put off as long as they can, but sooner or later it suddenly swings round and looks them in the eye. N. T. Wright Read Quote
People have been told so often that resurrection is just a metaphor, and means Jesus died and was glorified – in other words, he went to Heaven, whatever that means. And they’ve never realized that the word ‘resurrection’ simply didn’t mean that. N. T. Wright Read Quote
