Millennium Myth

By N.T. Wright

Book Overview

A widely recognized New Testament scholar provides a clear explanation of how the turn of the millennium has been misunderstood and miscalculated, and shows why the widespread "apocalyptic take" on the millennium is in error.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0664258417
• ISBN13: 9780664258412
• Release Date: April 1999
• Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
• Length: 128 Pages
• Weight: 0.61 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.0" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Very Dynamic and still relevant

Do not let the fact that this book was written before 2000 in response to the millennium celebration make you think that it is outdated, because nothing could be further from the truth. I do not remember when I have read a book as fast as I read this one, because Wright's style of writing is lucid and dynamic. I recommend this book for everyone able to read and if not it is worth getting someone to read it to you. Wright opens the book with a discussion about the calendar and how it came into being and this within in itself was interesting, but he points out that there would be no Millenium celebration if it were not for Jesus. He does not say this because Jesus was necessary to sustain the world (though that may could be argued), but because the calendar reflects time in relation to Jesus and his birth. He does point out that Dionysius was 4 years off, but nevertheless, dating is based on Jesus coming into the world. His conclusion is that Jesus is Lord and Caesar is not. Wright then uses the idea that Jesus is Lord and Caesar is not to deal with modernity and post modernity. His conclusions are excellent and by all means still relevant for the Church today. Get this book!

How Christianity Answers Postmodernism

Wright goes in to show that Christianity claims a metanarrative that isn't a powerplay. True Christianity is about worshipping and imitating the Lord of All who was the SERVANT of All. A treat at the end of the book is Wright's dealing with the present question of third world debt. A great read.

THE CHALLENGE OF JESUS AS LORD

In his Preface, Wright states the thesis for his book: that to celebrate the Millennium does not mean preparing for the end of the world, but saying to our world what the calendar was designed to say in its day: Jesus is Lord. He begins the book with an explanation of the origin of our present calendar, proposed by Dionysius around 500 AD to mark time in which Jesus reigns as King. He includes an excellent discussion of the dating problems involved, and offers a very brief review of various interpretations of the thousand years of Jesus' reign, based on Revelation 20.Next, he summaries the main reasons for his argument that January 1, 2000 has nothing to do with anything in biblical prophecy: 1) the calendar was invented in the sixth century and got the date wrong; 2) the calendar dates from the conception of Jesus, but the reign began from his resurrection; 3) even assuming no problem in the dating, and allowing for prophecy, that event would have occurred around 1030 AD; etc.In the chapter on "Apocalypse Now?" Wright has an excellent discussion, in popularized and easy to read language, of the meaning of Apocalyptic language, extremely well illustrated. He also has a very brief but helpful discussion of heaven and earth and their mutual relation, and of Christian future hope.The third and fourth chapters are full of comparisons of Christian faith and modern and postmodern thinking. Chapter four contains basic characterizations of the Christian "story" such as we find in Wright's other works (e.g. NTPG & JVG). The final chapter is a recommendation on how to properly celebrate the Millennium, with an extended treatment of the theme of Jubilee, in which Wright proposes that we begin to live out the reality of our faith as Jesus' first followers did, in a community in which everything is shared and none are in want!In view of Wright's treatment (or lack) of the resurrection of Jesus in his other writings, many have queried how he really thinks about it, but it is a theme he stresses throughout this little tract, and upon which he bases the Lordship of Jesus. Without the resurrection no Jesus, no Jesus, no Millennium; and without him the world would date itself--but, Oh, what a different world it would be....