N.T. Wright’s Acts for Everyone (Book Review)
Time for a quick review of N.T. Wright’s Acts for Everyone (Part One):
Awesome.
Now, let me elaborate. What impressed me deeply about Wright’s commentary on Acts is his magisterial command of biblical narrative threads. He views the events of Pentecost and the apostolic journeys without ever losing sight of the Old Testament backdrop of prophecy and accumulated Jewish history. As a result, the reader gets a much deeper appreciation for the timing and gigantic significance of God’s actions.
In addition, N.T. Wright’s style is scholarly and warm at the same time. He shares brief anecdotes with each passage that transition into his focused commentary. It’s amazing that Wright can generate scores of these spot-on illustrations, most of them from his own life, but all the more so when his anecdotal approach is paired with the kind of sweeping analysis and wise commentary he supplies.
If you’re looking for a commentary on Acts that’s extremely informed, “provocative” in the scriptural kingdom sense, and devotional as well, this is it. N.T. Wright is accessible (in a C.S. Lewisian way), but without softening the impact of his remarkable theology jones. I’m very appreciative, as reading Acts for Everyone, Part 1 proved to be both inspiring and theology-shaping experience, sending me back to the book of Acts with new eyes. (I expect no drop-off in Part 2.)
*** N.T. Wright’s Acts for Everyone gets three of three stars–don’t miss it.
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