How God became king The forgotten story of the Gospels

Wright (St. Andrews's School of Divinity, Scotland) explores what he calls "the missing middle," which has to do with the fact that the creeds begin with the virgin birth but then jump to the end of Jesus's life with no indication that anything important happened in between; and as a result, Christians often find it entirely possible to talk about "the Gospel" without any reference to the Gospels. Further, Wright argues that virtually the entire Christian church has presented a distorted and unbalanced version of the Gospels. He argues against those who say that the "missing middle" is about how to get to heaven, or about ethics, or the perfect sacrifice, or about providing an example to live by. Such answers are not necessarily wrong, says Wright, they just miss the point of the story. Wright places the Gospels firmly in their ancient Jewish context and argues that at their core, they tell the story of Jesus as the fulfillment of Jewish prophecies about God becoming King in Israel. This thought-provoking book is well written and well argued. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-level undergraduates and above; general readers. D. Ingolfsland Crown College

*Starred Review* Except for Jesus' birth and death, most Western Christians have forgotten what the four canonical Gospels are about, Wright says in this book that follows his life of Christ, Simply Jesus (2011). To the question, What are all the sermons, parables, healings, miracles, controversies, dining, and traveling in the middle bits of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John about? Wright typically hears answers such as telling believers how to get to heaven or proving Jesus' divinity. Such rationales have their grains of truth, Wright grants, but they miss what his study of the New Testament has revealed to him as the four core themes of the canonical Gospels: that the gospel is, inextricably, the story of Israel, God's people; that the story of Jesus is the story of the God of Israel in person; that the gospel is the story of the renewal of God's people, not the founding of the Christian church; and that the gospel is the story of a clash of kingdoms, God's and Caesar's. Together the four confirm that the kingdom of God on earth began with Jesus. Properly so understood, they can mend the modern division between kingdom Christians, who emphasize social-gospel concerns, and cross Christians, who concentrate on soul saving. Wright has never been more eloquent and persuasive than in this book, which, with his NT translation, The Kingdom New Testament (2011), caps a long, productive theological career.--Olson, Ray Copyright 2010 Booklist