N. T. Wright

Life

Wright was born in 1948 in Morpeth, Northumberland, England. He studied at the University of Oxford and prepared for ordination at Wycliffe Hall, an Anglican theological college of the same university. After his ordination in 1975, he taught at Oxford, Cambridge, and McGill University and also served as a college chaplain. He was Dean of Lichfield Cathedral (1994–1999) and Canon Theologian of Westminster Abbey (2000–2003) before serving as Bishop of Durham from 2003 to 2010. During this period he also sat in the House of Lords ex officio (that is, automatically by virtue of his office). He then served as Research Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at the University of St Andrews in Scotland (2010–2019), and since 2019 he has been a Senior Research Fellow at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford.

Ministry and Work

Wright has written more than eighty books. He publishes his scholarly works under the name N. T. Wright and his books for general readers under the name Tom Wright. His principal scholarly project is the series Christian Origins and the Question of God. Its first volume, The New Testament and the People of God, sets out a method for reading the New Testament within the historical context of first-century Judaism.

Along with E. P. Sanders and James Dunn, he is regarded as a leading scholar of the "New Perspective on Paul." The New Perspective reexamines interpretations that have cast Paul and Judaism simply as opposing each other. Wright reads justification (God's declaring a person righteous) within the context of the covenant, through which Jews and Gentiles become one people of God. He also distinguishes between the justification received by faith at conversion and final justification on the last day. His popular works include Simply Christian, Surprised by Hope, and the For Everyone commentary series on the New Testament.

Influence on the Korean Church

His major works have been translated into Korean and are widely read among seminarians, pastors, and laypeople. IVP, the publishing arm of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship of Korea, has published eighteen volumes of the For Everyone commentaries, among other titles. The debate over justification also reached Korean readers. The critique by American Baptist pastor John Piper, The Future of Justification, and Wright's reply, Justification: God's Plan and Paul's Vision, were both translated. Korean scholars have also published critical works, such as Rereading Tom Wright's Doctrine of Justification by Professor Park Young-don of Kosin Theological Seminary and A Reformed Theological Response to Tom Wright by Professor Lee Seung-goo of Hapdong Theological Seminary.

Assessment

Supporters regard his success in prompting scholars to reread Paul in his first-century context as a contribution to New Testament scholarship. Critics in the Reformed camp contend that he does not accept the imputation of Christ's righteousness (God's reckoning Christ's righteousness to the believer) as Paul's teaching and that he connects final justification with works. They therefore argue that he obscures the Reformation doctrine of justification by faith, and some go so far as to describe his views as "works-based salvation" or "semi-Pelagianism." Piper argued that the ground of final justification is the righteousness of Christ imputed to the believer, while Wright countered that such language does not appear in the Pauline epistles. Wright himself maintains that the New Perspective as he understands it does not conflict with traditional concerns such as personal salvation and atonement. Rather, he explains, it seeks to recover the larger picture of God's plan to redeem the whole world.