Mcknight and Wright

Earlier in the year, I read The King Jesus Gospel by Scot McKnight and When God Becomes King by NT Wright. I like the way that Wright and McKnight bring together the message of the cross and the Kingdom. McKnight tells the story against the background of the altar call gospel, whereas Wright frames it within the gaps in the creeds. Although, they come from different directions, they end up in a similar place with a renewed emphasis on the importance of the Kingdom of God. Wonderful stuff.

They both emphasise that Jesus is the fulfilment of Israel’s story, but I get a bit nervous about the use the word “story”. Did something really happen in Israel. Did Abraham and Moses really exist, or are they just a post-modern metanarrative that the gospel writers used to frame their gospel. I am sufficiently pre-postmodern that I need the history of Israel to be real and mean something in terms of Gods plans and purposes.

I realise that it is churlish to say that a book has failed to answer important questions. An author cannot every question, and they are entitled to choose which questions they think are important and worthy of answer. Nevertheless, I am going to say that I think that three important things are missing from these two books. I will deal with these in the next three posts.