The New Testament in Its World

Description

The New Testament in Its World by N. T. Wright and Michael F. Bird brings together decades of groundbreaking research, writing, and teaching into one volume that will open readers’ eyes to the larger world of the New Testament. It presents the New Testament books as a historical, literary, and social phenomena located in the world of Second Temple Judaism, amidst Greco-Roman politics and culture, and within early Christianity.

An ideal guide for students, The New Testament in Its World addresses the many difficult questions faced by those studying early Christianity. Both large and small, these questions include:

• What is the purpose of the New Testament?
• What was the first-century understanding of the kingdom?
• What is the real meaning of the resurrection in its original context?
• What really were the Gospels?
• Who was Paul and why are his letters so controversial?
• As twenty-first-century people, how do we recover the excitement of what it was like to live as Christians in the first or second centuries?

Available for the first time, this comprehensive work also serves as a one-volume overview to the lifelong project of scholar N. T. Wright to understand the important questions surrounding the origins of Christianity. As such, it stands to become the definitive introduction in its field.

About the Authors

N. T. Wright is the Chair of New Testament and Early Christianity at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. He is the award-winning author of many books, including After You Believe, Surprised by Hope, Simply Christian, The Challenge of Jesus, and The Meaning of Jesus (coauthored with Marcus Borg), as well as the series Christian Origins and the Question of God.

Michael F. Bird is Academic Dean and Lecturer in theology at Ridley College in Melbourne, Australia. He is the author of Jesus and the Origins of the Gentile Mission, The Saving Righteousness of God, Evangelical Theology, Romans (Story of God Bible Commentary Series), The Gospel of the Lord: How the Early Church Wrote the Story of Jesus, and editor of The Apostle Paul: Four Views. He also runs a popular theological studies blog called “Euangelion” and can be followed on twitter @mbird12.