On 'The Mission of God' by Christopher Wright

Christopher Wright argues that God has a 'mission' in relation to his creation. He created and saves the world as part of that mission. This book tries to put this across. It is similar to the 'New View' idea that God has a Cosmic Plan, and this pages briefly compares Wright's view with New View. Wright works this idea of the Mission of God out in four main parts:

• The Bible and Mission: A 'missional hermeneutic': how to interpret the Bible through the lens that God has a mission; doing so is hermeneutically fruitful. "Mission is what the Bible is all about." [p.29] "To read the whole Bible in the light of this great overarching perspective of the mission of God, then, is to read with the grain of this whole collection of texts that constitute our canon of Scripture." [p.64] This book is friendly to pluralism and postmodernism, but not to relativism.

  This is similar to NewView in that NewView is also hermeneutically fruitful, and God's Cosmic Plan is what the Bible is all about. Moreover, to seek to read "with the grain" of the whole Bible is what A Brief History of God is about. See a NewView of Scripture.

• The God of Mission: YHWH and monotheism, Jesus as Lord, Idolatry. YHWH is the God, and p.104 offers an excellent table of several ways in which YHWH is distinct from his creation; Jesus shares identity with YHWY; monotheism globalises praise; Mission exists because praise does.

  This part has some useful insights that could enrich NewView and are implicit in NewView.

• The People of Mission: Election, Redemption, Covenant, Ethids. Humanity with a mission, Israel with a mission, Jesus with a mission, the Church with a mission [p.65-6] "The care and keeping of creation is our human mission." [p.65]

  This is similar to the NewView notion of Representing God, especially that representation of God by humanity to the rest of creation. The statement of the human mission as care is very like the NewView emphasis on Radah as our Role.

• The Arena of Mission: The Earth, Humanity, sin and evil, Wisdom and culture, Nations and the future. The sanctity (but not divinity) of creation; God's redemption of the whole of creation; God's glory as the goal of creation. Care of creation and Christian mission. Mission and God's image. The fall, and evangelism. Nations

  This has much in common with NewView, especially that "Creation care is an urgent issue in today's world." [p.413]. But the reason Wright gives that we are to care is because God owns it, whereas in NewView the reason is that we are to love it, as part of reprsenting God. Wright sees humanity as stewards rather than shepherds of Creation. Wright gives four dimensions of humanity as image of God - addressable by God, accountable to God, with dignity and equality, and the gospel fits all [p.422-5] - but omits the NewView insight that image of God means representing God. Probably NewView has a stronger notion of evangelism, the work of the Holy Spirit and or revival.

Christopher Wright's book is a great step forward, collating many important ideas that have been growing. But it is written from a conventional background, with conventional deep presuppositions. As a step, we should begin with it rather than end with it.

Then we can perhaps make sense of what God is doing today in the world, and the warnings He is giving.

This page is offered to God as on-going work in developing a 'New View' in theology that is appropriate to the days that are coming upon us. Comments, queries welcome.

Copyright (c) Andrew Basden 2010, but you may use this material subject to certain conditions.

Written on the Amiga with Protext. Number of visitors to these pages: .

Created: 15 April 2011 as part of Books, this file created from that 27 April 2011. Last updated: 23 January 2014 some links and corrections. 28 April 2014 Link corrected.