Surprised by Scripture: Engaging with contemporary issues
Tom Wright
SPCK £12.99
(978-0-281-06985-9)
Church Times Bookshop £11.70

CAN scripture surprise us? For some, it seems just too familiar ever to surprise; for others, it seems to have been written too long ago to have any relevance today. For Tom Wright, surprise comes when scripture is found to engage freshly with contemporary issues when rightly interpreted and understood - which is exactly what he claims to have accomplished.

He has, of course, good reason to make such a claim. As a scholar writing under the name N. T. Wright, he has established himself at the very forefront of NT studies; as an interpreter for a wider public, under the name Tom Wright, he is the author of widely read books written in a highly accessible style. Surprised by Scripture, a collection of essays mainly addressed to American audiences (and so responding specifically to American concerns), displays all these qualities - in particular his characteristic lucidity and gift for striking illustrations and analogies.

The range of topics, even if slanted towards American perspectives, is wide and stimulating: science and religion; 9/11, tsunamis, and the problem of evil; the biblical case for ordaining women; politics; the future; the Apocalypse - these are among the dozen issues addressed. The "surprise" comes from the aptness of a number of contested biblical passages - again, when rightly understood - to addressing contemporary issues; and for the interpretation of these Wright can draw on massive support from his own more detailed work. His customary lucidity and persuasiveness carry the reader smoothly towards his recommended conclusion.

But questions may arise on the way. The resurgence of the ancient philosophy of Epicureanism, with its relegation of the idea of God to a distant sphere remote from human affairs, is repeatedly claimed to be at the root both of the Renaissance and of scientific atheism; the equally tenacious survival of Stoicism and Natural Law in Western culture is given little recognition.

There is no apparent interest in ecumenism and the mutual enrichment of Christian traditions through the more intensive dialogue of recent decades, let alone in the contribution of other faiths to our understanding of God and to the widening of our cultural horizons. There is little recognition that it is not only Christians who carry out signally charitable actions.

Perhaps, indeed, this points to the most significant question posed by this author, whether N.T. or Tom Wright. His reasoning is well founded, his persuasiveness redoubtable, his confidence in his conclusions unwavering. But, whereas most of us would think of biblical interpretation as necessarily an ongoing debate between scholars, readers, and Churches, in his case few doubts are allowed to surface; indeed, he claims (more than once) that "the entire Western Church has not known what the Gospels are for" - until, it seems to be implied, Tom Wright arrived to enlighten us!

Canon Anthony Harvey is a former Sub-Dean of Westminster Abbey.