Jesus & the Restoration of Israel

'Jesus & the Restoration of Israel' provides a critical assessment of N.T. Wright's critically significant 'Jesus and the Victory of God.' N.T. Wright's work is often thought of as one of the most marvellously constructed works in the current "third quest" of the historical Jesus.

In this second volume of his multivolume investigation entitled 'Christian Origins and the Question of God', Wright unveils and evaluates a Jesus that most historians have never encountered. Through Wright's lens, familiar sayings and actions of Jesus have fresh meaning. But Wright also provides a profile of Jesus that bears striking lines of continuity with the Jesus of Christian belief and worship. This resemblance has captured the attention of confessing Christian biblical scholars and theologians. Wright's work thus far is of such consequence that it seemed timely and strategic to publish a scholarly engagement with his reconstruction of the historical Jesus.

For the purposes of this book (and in keeping with IVP's own evangelical identity), editor Carey Newman invited scholars who are committed to Christian belief as it has been classically defined to engage Wright's Jesus and the Victory of God. Newman sets the stage with an introduction, and Craig Blomberg offers a critical and appreciative overview of Jesus and the Victory of God. Various facets of Wright's proposal are then investigated by contributors:

Paul Eddy on Jesus as prophet, Messiah and embodiment of Yahweh
Klyne Snodgrass on the parables
Craig Evans on Israel under continuing exile
Darrell Bock on the trial and death of Jesus
Dale Allison on apocalyptic language
Richard Hays on ethics
Alister McGrath on the implications for evangelical theology
Stephen Evans on methodological naturalism in historical biblical scholarship
Luke Timothy Johnson on Wright's historiography