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Title: Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense

Author: Wright, N.T.

Format: Hardcover: 256 pages

Publisher: Harper SanFrancisco (March 14, 2006)

ISBN: 0060507152

Review Date: January 26th, 2007

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I was surprised when this book came out because of two things; one, it claimed to be the next Mere Christianity, two, it had a recommendation by Anne Rice on the dust jacket.  It turns out that neither of these claims hurts the book, and it stands quite well on its own.

While working at my previous job, (at a non-profit Christian bookstore), a lady came in a was looking for a book to give to her skeptic friend.  She did not want to give him C.S. Lewis (God only knows for what reason), so I recommended her this book.  I had not read it yet, but now that I have, I am glad that I did.

Wright is hitting for a popular level in this book.  His audience are people who are suspicious of traditional, organized religion and the truth claims that it makes.  He uses a classic Lewis argument to start out with, the argument by desire.  He builds his book around justice, relationships, beauty, and the apparent lack of humanity to obtain them in any lasting and meaningful way.  He call this desire an echo.  Wright uses an analogy of God's future world slipping through to our own time when we experience justice, relationships or beauty.  It is this glimpse of the future, that is like an echo in our own time, telling us that there is something more.

The second motif that the book is based around is the way we view the universe.  He has three options, a Pantheist view, where everything is god, the Deist view, where god is very far away and hard to find, and the last option, the Christian view, where God is separate from creation, but very close to it.  In the Christian view Heaven and Earth dovetail together because they were created that way in the beginning. 

With the stage set with our unfulfilled desires and the three basic ways we can look at the universe we live in, Wright explores the options and logical out come of each of the worldviews, and at the end of the first section of the book, he shows that the Christian view is the only one that really makes sense.

Part Two of the book is called "Staring at the Sun."  I thought it was rather clever, as it is Wrights analogy for the way we "do" Christian theology.  I found this section less helpful though, as it is mostly an overview of the Biblical data.  Anyone who is familiar with the Bible can skip this section, but it is needed to lay the groundwork for people who are ignorant in matters of faith.

The Third and final section is an explanation of the Christian life.  Wright explains that when sin entered the world, the neatly interlocked Heavens and Earth were torn apart, and part of the Christian task as stewards of God's world is to help put it back together.  He explains that when we pray, read our Bible or worship, Heaven and Earth are coming back together in us and we are showing the world around us the way things are supposed to be.

Over all I think his methods will be effective with our current generation, as Wright seems to understand the zeitgeist rather well.  I think he manages to offer a classic orthodox Christian worldview in a way that communicates with your average person affected by post-modern thought.  I would recommend this book to give to your friends if they are seeking answers on spiritual matters.

On the down side, a few times Wright strayed into some social justice areas that I was uncomfortable with.  He did not use social justice as a resounding gong for every springboard in his book however, and I do not think it was uncalled for.  He simply points out that these are areas that Christians have dropped the ball on, and we need to do something about.  I am just so wary of a lot of these liberal social justice ideas I hear pontificated on our campuses so often that I might have been overly cautious in taking in his ideas concerning this subject.

One item of curiosity, he translated 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 as "practicing homosexuals," instead of as "homosexuals."  I think he may have done this to side step a lot of the arguments that people have about this, but he did not have the space to address in his book.  As it is, I do want to point out that he does not say homosexuality is acceptable.

Best quote: "Made for spirituality, we wallow in introspection."