A vision for theosis:

Almighty God,
who wonderfully created us in your own image
and yet more wonderfully restored us
through your Son Jesus Christ:
grant that, as he came to share in our humanity,
so we may share the life of his divinity;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen

Like so many SBL returnees, I’ve been in recent weeks reading through select portions of N. T. Wright’s Paul and the Faithfulness of God (Fortress, 2013). Everything, so far as I can tell, seems to be fairly straightforwardly Wrightian, both in viewpoint and style. In fact, I’ve just been reading his treatment on Romans 9-11 and have enjoyed (though respectfully disagreed with) his exegesis of 11:25-27, where he defends the view that “all Israel” refers to the multi-ethnic church. One particularly witty statement that made me laugh out loud, however, concerns his comparison of himself to Paul quoting Elijah (Rom 11:3-4):

That, I propose, is how we should read 11.26a; kai houtōs pas Israēl sōthēsetai, ‘and in this way “all Israel shall be saved”‘. At this point an exegete arguing my present case may well feel like Paul as he quotes Elijah; ‘I’m the only one left!’ It is not true, of course. There may not be seven thousand, but there might be seven or more out there who have not . . . well, perhaps we had better not complete that sentence. (p. 1239)

Glad you stopped where you did, Tom! But a well-played rhetorical move nevertheless 🙂 I suppose therein lies definitive proof that one need not provide a full quotation in order to evoke a source’s entire context.

On another note, it is interesting how may chiasms Wright both detects in Paul and employs throughout this book. Honestly, I’m not a big fan of his back-and-forth, chiastic treatment of Romans 9-11. Even if Paul returns to numerous themes at various parts of the argument, I haven’t found Wright’s unique presentation of that material to be in anyway more effective than a generally linear, passage-by-passage commentary through the text. But maybe that’s due to my typically western way of thinking.

I’m always looking for interesting videos for lectures. This definitely makes the list.

Passover Rhapsody – A Jewish Rock Opera

If you’ve got other must-show videos, give me the link.

These are classic. I’ve reblogged this material (via Liturgy) from Out of Ur’s:

Tom-foolery: 12 Epic Facts About N.T. Wright

For too long, Chuck Norris has been the benchmark for superhuman acts of power and justice. We’re setting that right.

From Wright fans John Raines, Kevin Emmert, Drew Dyck, and Paul Pastor comes this list of adoration for everyone’s favorite bishop-scholar-warrior-guru.

You call it idolatry. We call it reality. POW!

Keep kicking, Tommy-gun!

1. N. T. Wright doesn’t parse nouns. They decline themselves before him.

2. When James Dunn came up with the New Perspective, it was already old to N. T. Wright.

3. N. T. Wright doesn’t baptize infants. He sprinkles the hell out of them.

4. Dead theologians sit around and read books about N. T. Wright.

5. The Trinity isn’t a mystery to N. T. Wright.

6. N. T. Wright doesn’t read books. He stares at them until he gets the information he wants.

7. N. T. Wright once preached all night in an upper room. No one fell asleep.

8. Instead of playing crossword puzzles during breakfast, N. T. Wright solves New Testament manuscript variances.

9. N. T. Wright knows the Adamic tongue. But he only uses it to order take out.

10. N. T. Wright makes purple the most masculine color.

11. N. T. Wright is actually the guy Paul is talking about in 2 Corinthians 12.

12. N.T. Wright is only bald because his hair got too scared of his brain.

For those of you interested in Tom Wright, remember that he’s one of the keynote speakers at a conference on Paul and Judaism at HBU.  Plan to come and consider offering a paper.