N. T. Wright’s new book arrives in the middle of a contentious, pregnant moment on the American church scene, with American mainline churches seeking a unifying vision for evangelism, and the so-called “Young, Restless, and Reformed” movement in the evangelical world growing. Wright’s central contentions in After come to us as proposals for how we should think about what we believe and what we should do.
It is written with what might be called both “dogmatic” and “apologetic” concerns. He is both attempting to shift thought and action within the church (dogmatic) from a rule- or emotion-based mentality to a character ethic shaped by the virtues the New Testament enjoins, but is also suggesting that the way the New Testament sets forth the virtues is finally the most human option available to anyone (apologetic) who carefully considers what it proposes. It is striking that Wright locates both these concerns firmly under a commitment to the Lordship of Christ over the world and its wisdom.
Another, slightly different, set of apologetic concerns also animate Wright’s recommendations in After — the recent financial collapse that crippled Wall Street and Main Street; a general, pervasive, and well-earned mistrust of both democratic institutions and those who seek to lead them; and, an overvaluation of media figures — especially star athletes — as moral exemplars. The stark, recognizable vices that led to these realities form another part of the backdrop for Wright’s call to embrace the New Testament’s emphasis on character formed through virtue.
Wright believes that the accumulation and strengthening of Christian virtues will both ensure that we are responsible bearers of God’s image now, mediating God‘s presence to the world, and that we are the kind of citizens who can continue in our priestly and kingly roles in Christ’s future kingdom on earth. Wright is careful to distinguish Christian from “pagan” virtue, by emphasizing, for example, that those virtues Christians must acquire (humility, forgiveness, patience) often run directly counter to the kind of heroic virtues that Aristotle prized. Indeed, one of the central contentions of the book is that pagan accounts of virtue cannot finally deliver on what they promise because they issue in a pride that comes from attachment to various forms of heroism. To end in pride is to miss the humility that God incarnated in Christ, and therefore expects of the world.
Many will find bracing and basic Wright’s understanding of the Christian life as a team sport that entails practices that make Christians ready to meet challenges they would otherwise collapse before. But to think of the Church primarily as a “training ground” seems to underrate what I think most would readily affirm is the most practical way to understand it: a hospital for sinners who have just been brought back to life; a place where even those who make significant progress in overcoming the diseases that brought death, are never fully healed in this life.
Wright’s After will prove essential and edifying to readers as they think about what it means to become, more and more, God’s own people.
JAMES CUBIE is acting Christian Educator at Bradley Hills Church in Bethesda, Md.
