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Posts Tagged "Tom Wright":

10th September 2012

Candidate for Cantuar: N T or Tom Wright?


 

 
Professor N T Wright, or Tom Wright,  is so well-known to all likely readers of this post that I hesitate to write at all, but it would be unfair not to subject him to the same sort of summary that I have offered for other potential candidates, so here goes. I was rather surprised to find that Tom Wright has a LinkedIn profile. He is still listed as Bishop of Durham, and only has one connection. This is rather the point – Bishop Tom has no need of a LinkedIn page, he is already a household name.

Bishop Tom was born in Morpeth, Northumberland and educated at Sedbergh, established in 1525. He read classics at Exeter College, Oxford, followed by a theology degree from Exeter University. In addition to his Doctor of Divinity degree from Oxford,  he  has also been awarded multitudinous other honorary doctoral degrees.
 

 

 Career

As the entry in Crockford’s makes clear, he is essentially a theologian and does not appear to have had any experience as a priest at parish level. His seven years at Durham, however, would have given him oversight of all the parishes in the diocese.

* +WRIGHT, The Rt Revd Prof Nicholas Thomas. b 48. Ex Coll Ox BA71 MA75 DPhil81 DD00. Wycliffe Hall Ox BA73. d75 p 76 c 03. Fell Mert Coll Ox 75-78; Chapl 76-78; Chapl and Fell Down Coll Cam 78-81; Asst Prof NT Studies McGill Univ Montreal 81-86; Chapl and Fell Worc Coll Ox and Univ Lect Th 86-93; Dean Lich 93-99; Can Th Cov Cathl 92-99; Lector Theologiae and Can Westmr Abbey 00-03; Bp Dur 03-10; Chair NT and Early Christianity St Andr Univ from 10.

He was  Bishop of Durham from 2003 until 2010, when he left to take up a new appointment as Research Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at St Mary’s College, University of St Andrews.
 

 

Publications

He has an astonishing 69 books currently in print, according to his Amazon pages. Lay Anglicana reviewed his 2012 book on Mark, released in time to be studied for Lent around the globe, under the leadership of the Big Bible Project; Lay Anglicana also ran an ‘online house group‘ to discuss a page every day of the text.

There is no doubt that he is an excellent communicator – his ease of manner and attractive speaking voice make him a pleasure to listen to, even when one does not necessarily agree with what he is saying.

He publishes under two names: ‘Professor N T Wright’ when he is writing for grown-up theologians, and the matier ‘Tom Wright’ when he is writing what I call ‘Goldilocks theology’, works which are neither too difficult nor too easy, but just [w]right.  This habit of writing different sorts of work under different names is of course quite common in the publishing world (Ruth Rendell, for example, also writes as Barbara Vine) and there may be good reasons for doing it, particularly in fiction, but for works of theology it makes me a little uneasy, I know not why.

 

 

Churchmanship

Bishop Tom’s theological views would require a post of their own, running to several thousand words. He is well-represented on YouTube, if you would like to explore further and the Wikipedia entry combined with his fan website should provide a good introduction to his beliefs, if you have time to spare.
 
 
If you don’t have time to spare, I recommend the page on Thinking Anglicans summarising his interview in 2010 by the Church of Ireland Gazette:

“Bishop Tom Wright, former Bishop of Durham and now a Research Professor at the University of St Andrews, has said that the Church of England should not proceed to the consecration of women as Bishops if the move were to create a large division.

He said: “my own position is quite clear on this, that I have supported women Bishops in print and in person. I’ve spoken in Synod in favour of going that route, but I don’t think it’s something that ought to be done at the cost of a major division in the Church.”

Bishop Wright warned that if the Church of England were not able to resolve the matter “a ‘quick fix’ resolution” would be “a recipe for long-term disaster”…

And asked about the Anglican Covenant, he said this:

Asked if he thought the proposed Anglican Communion Covenant, aimed at keeping the global Communion together, would become a reality, Bishop Wright said: “I think so, because I don’t think really there’s any alternative.” He said the Communion could not afford to have “the kind of unstructured mess that we’ve had”.

 

 
It seems clear that Bishop Tom abhors ‘unstructured mess’.
 
 
He has already made it clear what he thinks should happen next to Cantuar, in an ‘appreciation’ in Fulcrum of Archbishop Rowan’s term of office (my bolding):

A new Archbishop must be allowed to lead. Yes, there are deep divisions. Part of the next Archbishop’s task will be to discern and clarify the difference between the things that really do divide and the things that people believe will do so but which need not. But, at the same time, there are problems of structure and organization that slow things down and soak up energy, problems that can and should be fixed so that the church and its leaders can be released for their mission, and to tackle properly the problems we face.

Who, after all, is running the Church of England? We have Lambeth Palace, the House of Bishops, General Synod, the Archbishops’ Council, the Anglican Communion Office, and (don’t get me started) the Church Commissioners. How does it all work? In an episcopal church, the bishops should be the leaders. Rowan hasn’t bothered much about structures, but with six hands grabbing at the steering wheel someone now needs to take charge. I wouldn’t bet on the Crown Nominations Commission proposing someone with the right combination of spirituality, wisdom and strategic thinking, plus boundless, multi-tasking energy. But that’s what I shall be praying for.

 
 

Leap in the dark assessment

An authoritarian autocrat in a cuddly teddy-bear’s clothing?
 
 
   

Tags: , , | Category: Archbishop of Canterbury

17 Comments »
Posted by at 17:33

12th April 2012

Global Village House Group for Lent: How it Went

In February I wrote a post called ‘House Group for the Global Village (Join Lay Anglicana for Lent)’: this is the follow-up.

At the bridge table, after a hand there is often a post-mortem, but it is understandable that after every military exercise the similar process is instead called ‘a wash-up’. For some reason, the Americans prefer the expression ‘hotwash’ (perhaps they have been at too many British cold water versions?). At any rate, the military version traditionally begins with: ‘What Went Well’*.

So what went well with our online house group, that is to say the discussion in the Lay Anglicana forum of Mark’s gospel, using Tom Wright’s Lent for Everyone?

  • It happened. Every day, the extract from Tom Wright’s book appeared in a forum post, together with his version of the text. This was thanks to 12 Baskets and SPCK, who had exceptionally given permission for the text to be made available in this way (in the interests of copyright, we will retroactively condense these extracts once the discussions are over). Ernie Feasey, a joint organiser of  Lay Anglicana who is studying for the priesthood (and a fellow Digidisciple) wrote his own commentary every day, in which he teased out the words of the gospel and Wright’s commentary, and offered a few insights of his own. He also posed a question every day for us to answer.
  • It was useful to be able to supplement our own comments with input from the Big Read 12 Facebook page, which we in turn contributed to, and from the Big Bible Project – Big Read website.
  • The ‘usual suspects’ who were already regular contributors to the forum took part: lay Anglicans like Ernie, Joyce, Charlie Farns-Barns and me. But we also had contributions from priests, in particular fellow Digidisciple Dr George Morley whose latest post was cross-referred in the forum: she also became a regular and provided a useful trained eye, if she won’t mind the description. And we had contributions from several new people, including one from New York City and one from an American living in China. We had no trolls or other vexatious persons.
  • There have been 413 posts so far – Tom Wright’s commentary extends throughout Easter Week, so we are not through yet.
  • It has been a good bonding exercise for those taking part, and a good Lenten discipline having to read (and where possible comment) every day.

What Went Wrong?

  • Nothing really went wrong! But one or two unforeseen things happened…
  • We ran into difficulties when one of the contributors objected that Mark’s description of the Pharisees was anti-Semitic. This was an unexpected point, and the contributor was not just making an intellectual point, (s)he seemed genuinely indignant. I put out a plea on twitter for help from someone more versed in biblical knowledge and one person, thank goodness, replied  in the forum. Unfortunately, the original complainant did not return. Two of my priestly friends offered help and advice on twitter, but did not put their comments on the forum. I was better informed as a result, but would have felt uneasy about lifting their twitter comments (which are ephemeral) and copying them to the forum, where they are likely to have a considerably longer cyber-life. I think that the default netiquette position is probably that it is wrong to do this, certainly without permission? What do you think?
  • The other slight hurdle we faced was a distinct flagging of energy around the fourth Sunday of Lent. This must be a general problem, because the Church has already come up with a solution: it is called Rose Sunday or Refreshment Sunday or Laetare Sunday. But we rallied, recovered our energy and continued.

Would I do it again?

Yes, absolutely. Would others join me? I hope so!

 

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The illustration, called ‘Journey of Faith in God’ is by David Perry via 12 Baskets and he asks that this text accompany it: “Imagining the Lectionary: Impassable, impossible or imperative – the improbable pathway to Easter and beyond”

* The leader of our Lent group offers this explanation of military exercises in general and the house group exercise as a whole:

Yes, flagging at the fourth Sunday, is correct. It’s interesting that at the start, I was excited to wake and to go to the forum, to read the latest episode (a bit like following a good serial drama on TV). I’ve found it easy to follow my instinct in what I draw from the verses and text, rather than try to seek some deep theological things to say.  Perhaps writing from the heart best describes it.

I’ve found the feedback useful and helpful and while not trying to be provocative, I have sometimes stretched my posts in slightly  different directions, from Tom Wright’s guidance.  It’s been empowering to draw on life experiences to illustrate some of my points.

I would definitely do it again.

And, just a trivial observation, we ex-military types after an exercise have a ‘Hot-Debrief’ followed by a thought through ‘post-exercise (or ‘post-operational’) report (PXR) (POR) where we do a detailed study of what went right and what went wrong and what we can do to get it right next time.  I wouldn’t decry the American experience as a hot wash after a long exercise or operation seems a most neighbourly thing to do, as BO can be a factor in all of it. 🙂

Tags: , , , , , | Category: Christianity

5 Comments »
Posted by at 08:28

11th January 2012

‘Lent For Everyone: Mark: Year B’ by Tom Wright

Some books of theology manage to fit hermeneutics, exegesis, praxis and soteriology all into one sentence. Very impressive.  Others make suitable texts for Children’s Church. But this is the Goldilocks of theological works, pitched at  just the right level of brow for the vast majority of the reading public.

As multi-layered as an onion, Professor N T Wright‘s new book on Mark draws you in at once with its matter-of-fact, chatty, deceptively simple prose.  Each ‘chapter’ covers one day between Ash Wednesday and Easter Saturday. Using the prescribed lectionary for the day, Professor Wright focuses on a few verses and offers us his translation, and his exegesis. If, like me, you prefer a more traditional version of the bible, I suggest you begin by reading the passage in that version before plunging into the Wright text. Like all the best teachers, he makes some of the expected points about each passage, so that you are to some extent lulled into thinking you are keeping up well (if not actually ahead of him), but he then slips in an explanation, a twist or a new perspective, which sends you back to the beginning of the chapter to start again. I do not mean to suggest that the text is difficult, far from it, but there is a good deal more meat on the bones that you might anticipate at first glance.

Consciously or unconsciously, Professor Wright echoes the style of Mark’s gospel itself. Alec McCowan memorably did a one-man show in which he simply spoke Mark’s gospel, having first learnt it by heart. Here he describes how he became gripped by the text. Although he did ‘not regard himself as a religious man’,

Certainly, when I was working on St Mark and performing St Mark, there were signs. On several occasions, when I least expected it and when I most needed it, there would be a sign.   I became aware that the sun, the moon, or even the glow from a burning candle, assumed a new significance.  Whenever I needed it, I was blessed; and blessed specifically with light and warmth.

Reading Morna Hooker’s book on Mark (as our house group did for the last Year B Lent), I was thrilled to learn that some scholars think that Mark finished his gospel at 16.8, as it were mid-stream. To me, that fits beautifully with the idea that Mark was writing all the time with dramatic effect in mind. Ending by begging the question of what happens next, he leads us straight on to Acts. Now, this was probably not deliberate (and Professor Wright, though he agrees that Mark’s words probably end at 16.8, does not think that this was his intended conclusion.) Nevertheless:

It reads like a shocking new beginning – which of course is what Mark intends. The story is not over. In fact, it’s just starting: the new story…the new way of living, a new way of being human, has been launched upon the world, a way that people thought impossible then and think impossible still today, but a way that has caught up millions and transformed their lives beyond recognition. (p.174)

If you are looking for a wise godfather to hold you by the hand as you find or continue your journey of transformation, I can recommend no one more sincerely than Professor N T Wright, or Tom, as he may let you call him.

He ends on Easter Saturday with a prayer:

Lord Jesus, King and Master; overcome our fears with your love, and our doubts with your life, so that we may take that love and life to the ends of the world.

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Notes

Lent for Everyone: Mark: Year B by Tom Wright, published January 2012 by SPCK Publishing, 144 pages, £6.99 ISBN 9780281062225 The illustration is taken from the SPCK website. The quotation is from Double Bill by Alec McCowan, first published by Elm Tree Books in 1980.

What the publisher says about the book:

The third in the massively successful Lent for Everyone series focuses on the Gospel of Mark, taking the reader through the designated Lectionary readings for every day of Lent and Easter. The New Testament passages are Tom Wright’s own lively and accessible translations from The New Testament for Everyone (SPCK, 2011). Each extract is followed by a freshly written reflection and a prayer that will encourage readers to ponder the relevance of Mark’s Gospel for their own lives. Lent for Everyone: Mark,Year B is an ideal study companion that will help to make Lent a period of rich discovery and growth for both individuals and groups.

 

The Big Read, Big Bible Project, is now in its third year, having begun with Luke and then moved on to Matthew. The idea is for as many people as possible to share the same text, which they can either then meditate on alone or, preferably, discuss in an online or offline house group. Lay Anglicana will be hosting an online house group to discuss the texts in our discussion forum, beginning on Ash Wednesday. Do please join us!
Here Professor Wright explains The Big Read and welcomes all participants:

Tags: , , , | Category: Big Read 2012, Mark's gospel, The Big Read

17 Comments »
Posted by at 12:24
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