BOOK REVIEW: Simply Christian by NT Wright

I have recently finished the book by NT Wright, Simply Christian. I enjoyed this book, but there are a few things in it I found a bit boring. Don't get me wrong, I believe the guy's content is extremely strong: the good bishop knows his stuff (and no, I am NOT interested in debating or talking with anyone regarding his views on justification or theology).

I began this book with hopes of practical application of knowledge, and that is probably where my disconnect came from...he spends quite a bit of the book on historical contexts and explanation. This is needed, especially in an entry level book of practical apologetics. But personally, I found his application f prayer and worship absolutely wonderful. His chapter on prayer is one of the best chapters on the wholeness of prayer theology I have read. Furthermore, I was extremely pleased with how he described and contextualized his words on worship. I would highly recommend any pastor or spiritual practitioner read these two chapters at the very least...wonderful!

He also tells some intriguing stories and has some great analogies for spirituality (a water spring underneath a concrete city for one). Plus, he is very understanding to the U.S. reader in his wording and sentence construction (he is in England, and English writers mainly write, like any other writer, from within their world and thereby causes a bit of a disconnect with other cultures in the reading).

Finally, our church community (ALC) is reading through this book in our current series, Desire. We are taking the topics of beauty, truth, relationships, and justice and wrapping them in the context of God and culture in a way to where we lean into these topics from a spiritual point of view rather than socialize or degrade these deep spiritual leanings with "just" the cultural strain of hope.

As with any book I read and keep, this one has many underlines and highlights and personal remarks. I would encourage anyone who follows (or wants to follow) Jesus to pick this up and give it a read. It isn't very long at 250 some odd pages.