God for Today Audiobook (Unabridged)

" A fantastic overview of how Authority has been understood over the history of the Christian faith and a good argument for how and why we should still hold Scripture as authoritative. "

" "Decent. Some good ideas, but not as many as I'd hoped for" "

" This book is a new edition of an earlier book called "The Last Word." But it includes 2 new excursuses: one on sabbath, the other on monogamy. Even if you own the first edition of this title, those two additional essays are worth the price of buying this new edition of the book. "

" Anything by N.T.Wright is a good read in my opinion. In this readable book Wright looks at the notion of "authority" and what it means for understanding scripture. Generally Wright in this book challenges both literalist reading of scripture and the post-modernist rejection of a meta-narrative. The Bible is authoritative because it has Christ's authority in interpreting it. It is not the Bible which gives authority to Christ, but Christ who gives authority to the Bible. "

" Generally good, but I'm not sure I would recommend it. As always, Wright is an engaging writer, and communicates effectively at a lay-level. He paints a grand vision and has some great "big picture" insights. However, several factors make this book one of his worst. First, he dances around the important question of inerrancy. No doubt he would make some dismissive comment about how that is a distinctively North American question (as he does occasionally throughout the book with other issues). He would be right, but being a NA question doesn't mean it isn't an important one. How can the Bible be authoritative if it isn't inerrant? There may actually be a good answer for that, but Wright doesn't deal with the real problems that question poses. If the Bible is full of "errors," then which parts are authoritative and which parts are erroneous and who gets to decide? Typically, when inerrancy is thrown out, the parts that are judged to be "errant" are the parts that the individual does not particularly like. Canaanite genocide? That was an error. Teachings about sexuality? Errors. Jesus' divinity? Error, error, error. Thus, for those who throw out inerrancy, the Bible can become functionally subservient to the authority of the individual, not the other way around. Wright's constructive chapter is fairly good, and brought the book from 2 stars to 3. Also, his example chapters on the Sabbath and monogamy are also very well done. Though I disagree with him on the Sabbath, he made a very good argument that respects the text. Wright also tries to place himself between two extremes, as he always does. It must be the Anglican in him. His critiques are often spot on, especially when he speaks against the "liberals," but he generally gets the "conservatives" right as well. Even so, this attempt to always place himself in the via media can be condescending and at times it seems as though there really isn't a "middle" despite his attempts to create one. Several times he brings up the death penalty noting that most of the early church fathers were against it and critiques the "right" for holding to it as a misapplication of the authority of Scripture. However, he offers not a shred of Biblical argument, so this critique fails and is rather an annoyance. Wright should have left those comments out as they only serve to distract. Wright's main point is that the authority of Scripture must be understood as God's authority exercised through and by Scripture. Scripture has a transformative purpose in the world that corresponds to Jesus' work to bring about the eschatological New Creation in the here and now. That purpose must be borne in mind when we talk about the authority of Scripture and how it applies to us. "

" A great overview of an intellectually honest approach to Scripture. The last two chapters are two excellent case studies in the hermeneutic that Wright proposes throughout the book. "

" Here, Wright gives a solid overview of his position. "

" I feel like this author did a pretty poor job of making his points. There were a lot of places where, rather than going into detail, he simply said he talked more about it in some other book. I have no interest in reading any more of his books. "

" Not as good (read fresh, insightful, well-argued) as Wright's other books, but a solid overview of his approach to the authority of Scripture. If you're familiar with Wright's other works and textbook hermeneutics then you can pass on this. "

" Great. Not earth-shattering for me, but could be for a lot of bible-as-a-handbook types, if they'd read it. "

" Great book about why and how Scripture has authority. A very refreshing take on an old subject. "

" Excellent book for a group study. "

" A typically excellent and clear explanation of interpretation and the role of the Bible in the church by N.T. Wright. The two case study examples included in this updated edition are especially valuable. "

" Another good book by Tom Wright. "