The Millennium Myth

by N. T. Wright

Publisher:

SPCK

, 1999

Overview

The preparing for and living in the new Millennium is not about getting ready for the end of the world. Rather, it is about continuing to live out the message that Jesus is Lord. In his usual engaging style, N. T. Wright discusses the new Millennium in light of what the Bible has to say about both eschatology and who Christ is.

Wright argues that getting ready for the millennium does not mean getting ready for the end of the world as we know it, and shows that the millennium hype is masking a deeper problem in our culture. By following some ancient words on hope, Wright outlines a practical way for creating a better world as we move into the coming age.

Contents

Top Highlights

“Apocalyptic language exploits the heaven/earth duality in order to draw attention to the heavenly significance of earthly events; apocalypticism exploits apocalyptic language to express a non-biblical dualism in which the heavenly world is good and the earthly bad.” (Page 36)

“As the Lord’s prayer itself indicates, and as the rest of Jesus’ teaching makes abundantly clear, the ‘kingdom of God’, or ‘kingdom of heaven’ (a reverent Jewish way of saying the same thing) is not a place, or a spiritual destination, but is rather a fact—the fact that God is ruling in the way he always intended. ‘Kingship’ is perhaps a better translation to bring this point out.” (Page 16)

“The millennial instinct, at its best, means simply this: the ineradicable belief that the creator of the world intends to rescue the world, not to abolish it. His plans are designed for earth, not just for heaven.” (Pages 18–19)

“Rather, the Bible points to God’s new world, where heaven and earth are fully integrated at last, and whose central feature is the personal, loving and healing presence of Jesus himself, the living embodiment of the one true God as well as the prototype of full, liberated humanity. When we talk about Jesus’ ‘coming’, the reality to which we point is his personal presence within God’s new creation.” (Page 43)

“Then, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the Puritans and others developed the view of a twelfth-century Abbot called Joachim: the Millennium, they said, would be an age of the Spirit, preceding the return of Jesus, not after it.” (Pages 12–13)

Product Details

• Title: The Millennium Myth
• Author: N. T. Wright
• Publisher: SPCK
• Print Publication Date: 1999
• Logos Release Date: 2011
• Pages: 128
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subjects: Millennium (Eschatology); Postmodernism › Religious aspects--Christianity
• ISBNs: 9780664258412, 0664258417
• Resource ID: LLS:MILLENIUMMYTH
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2023-08-15T19:31:12Z

About N. T. Wright

Nicholas Thomas “Tom” Wright (1948–) is a New Testament scholar, Pauline theologian, and Anglican bishop and currently Research Professor Emeritus of New Testament and Early Christianity at St. Mary's College in the University of St Andrews and Senior Research Fellow at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford. Christianity Today named him one of today's top theologians. 

Wright was born in Morpeth, Northumberland, and recounts an awareness of God's presence from a young age—and that relationship with God ever since is reflected in his life and work. He's a prolific author; one of his most popular books, Surprised by Hope, frames the resurrection of the dead as the appropriate hope for all believers rather than an overemphasis on just "going to heaven when you die." He's among the leading theologians in the New Perspective on Paul debate. Wright has several honorary doctoral degrees, and in 2014, the British Academy awarded him the Burkitt Medal "in recognition of special service to biblical studies." In 2015, he was made a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

Wright served as chaplain at Cambridge from 1978 to 1981, then as assistant professor of New Testament language and literature at McGill University in Montreal. Before becoming a chaplain, tutor, lecturer, and fellow at Oxford in 1986, Wright served as dean of Lichfield Cathedral, canon theologian of Westminster Abbey, and the bishop of Durham from 2003–10. In addition to the entire New Testament for Everyone Series, some of N. T. Wright's books include The New Testament in Its World: An Introduction to the History, Literature, and Theology of the First Christians, Who Was Jesus, The New Testament and the People of God, God and the Pandemic, Evil and the Justice of God, Surprised by Hope, and Simply Christian. He coauthored Jesus the Final Days with Craig A. Evans.