Book Review: Simply Christian

I suppose books on apologetics might be oversimplified into two types – those that Christians read to better talk to non-Christians, and those that Christians hand to non-Christians for them to read on their own.

Both of these, of course, are not ideal.  The first seems like it’s planning for an attack, and the second says, “I can’t defend my faith, but this other guy can.  So read him.” 

What would be ideal?  Perhaps a book that Christians could read, and think to themselves, “Wow!  That’s such a wonderful way to describe Jesus, or the world, or heaven!  I can’t wait to see if my neighbor X likes this idea as much as I do!”  To me, Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense was that book.  Written in 2006 by N.T. Wright, it is a beautifully written story of why the world is the way it is, and why we wish it were different, and how God has made the right world possible.

To give you a quick overview, the book is divided into three sections.  In the first, Wright explores the ideas of justice, spirituality, relationships, and beauty.  How we ache for these things, but can see that none of them is fully realized.  In the second section,

Wright gives a great summary of biblical theology.  He uses the full Old and New Testaments to talk about the big pictures of covenant, exodus, tabernacle, and word, and how Jesus fits into and fulfils God’s plan to fully redeem his creation.  And in the third section, he talks about how Christians are to live this new plan through worship, prayer, scripture, communion and baptism. 

I greatly enjoyed this book for both structural and theological reasons. 

First – structure. Wright has the ability to write a supremely organized book with set ideas (justice, spirituality, relationship, beauty) and return to them again and again. He does this with these longings, with worldviews (pantheism, deism) and with his themes of heaven, word, and kingdom.  But the bones of the book are highly organized, his tone is lyrical and readable and thoughtful without being academic.

Second – theology. N.T. Wright is someone who thinks that the gospel is about God bringing his whole creation back to rights.  That we do have a responsibility after we are saved to help God in his kingdom. We become God’s children by believing in his saving grace, and then we are to be “agents, heralds and stewards” of God’s new kingdom.  I love this.  I’ve given a couple samples of his words here and here.

I do feel like the book would have been strengthened with a larger discussion of sin and grace.  Wright spends very little time on this.  I suppose I should go read a similar book by John Piper to get the full story.

But overall, this is the sort of book that I would love to talk about with someone who was interested in God and the world.  Do you know someone who is interested in justice and beauty, and thinks Christianity is all about rules and hell, and who isn’t interested in that?  Offer to read this book with them, and have some great conversations.