What happens when N.T. Wright puts his vision of new creation in front of an Oxford audience? Questions quickly move from theology into politics, suffering, evangelism, worship and everyday Christian life.
In a special Unbelievable? event at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, N.T. Wright presented the central argument of his new book God’s Homecoming. But some of the most revealing moments came afterwards, as students, faculty and other members of the audience tested what his theology actually means in practice.
One question went straight to the future of creation. If the New Testament speaks of a “new heaven and a new earth”, is this world renewed or replaced?
Wright pointed to the resurrection of Jesus as the model. Something radically new had happened, yet Jesus was still recognisably the same person.
“This is not about God saying to the present creation, ‘Quite enough of that. I’m gonna do something totally different,’” he said.
Instead, the Christian hope involves the removal of everything marked by corruption, decay and death.
Can Christianity become political without becoming Christian nationalism?
John Nelson pushed Wright on another obvious question. If Christians believe God intends to transform the world, how do they avoid trying to impose the Kingdom of God politically?
Wright’s answer was emphatic.
“When God wants to get the world back into shape,” he said, “he doesn’t send in the tanks.”
Instead, he pointed to Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount:
“He sends in the poor in spirit, and the meek, and the brokenhearted, and the peacemakers, and the mourners, and the hungry for justice people.”
For Wright, the Kingdom of God certainly has implications for public life, but it cannot simply be identified with political power or national identity.
What happens to evangelism without the ‘heaven’ question?
Another audience member raised a practical challenge familiar to evangelists.
If the Christian message is not primarily framed around, “Where will you go when you die?”, what do you say instead?
Wright suggested beginning with God’s intention for creation:
“The God who made the world has launched his decisive plan to remake it and flood it with his own life and love and beauty and justice.”
The invitation then becomes participation:
“You get the chance if you want to be part of that plan… You up for that?”
It is a strikingly different evangelistic starting point: not simply escape from judgement, but recruitment into God’s renewal of the world.
‘We are God’s poem’
One of the evening’s most memorable images came when Wright addressed the relationship between grace and good works.
Drawing on Ephesians 2:10 and the Greek word poiema, he said:
“We are God’s poem, God’s artwork.”
Then came the characteristically playful qualification.
“Some of us may be haikus, some of us may be sonnets, some of us may be limericks, some of us may be epics going on and on and on forever.”
The Church, Wright argued, is called to become a visible sign of what God intends for creation.
What about suffering now?
Perhaps the most pastoral question came near the end.
How does a theology of future renewal help Christians facing illness, bereavement or unemployment today?
Wright pointed listeners towards the Psalms, Jesus’ farewell discourses in John 14-16 and Romans 8.
Christian hope, he suggested, does not avoid the groaning of the world. It places believers within it, trusting that the Spirit is present even where words fail.
That may be the most important feature of this Oxford conversation.
The theology is big, but the questions keep bringing it back down to earth: How should Christians vote and act? How should we evangelise? What do we do with suffering? What is the Eucharist? And what should the Church actually look like if it really believes God intends to renew creation?
