N.T. Wright, Revelation, and The Unique Human "Because"

Let’s return to notable biblical scholar N.T. Wright’s insights on human uniqueness through his brief comments on the book of Revelation, chapter 4. 

Here's the key section of the passage:

8 "Each of the four creatures had six wings, and they were full of eyes all round and inside. Day and night they take no rest, as they say,'Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty,Who Was and Who Is and Who Is to Come.'9 When the creatures give glory and honour and thanksgiving to the one who is sitting on the throne, the one who lives for ever and ever, 10 the twenty-four elders fall downin front of the one who is sitting on the throne, and worship the one who lives for ever and ever. They throw down their crowns in front of the throne, saying, 11 '0 Lord our God, you deserve to receive glory and honour and power, because you created all things; because of your will they existed and were created.'" Revelation 4

Wright then writes about this passage, emphasizing the focus on worship:

Consider the two songs of praise in this passage, the first in verse 8 and the second in verse 11. The first one is the song which the four living creatures sing round the clock, day and night. They praise God as the holy one; they praise him as the everlasting one. 

Effectively, he comments that they summarize the animal kingdom: human beings, the king of the wild animals (lion), leader of tamed animals (ox), and king of birds (eagle). (Incidentally, they have also come to represent the four writers of the Gospels sometimes called the Tetramporh.) The takeaway for me is that human beings are animals… in the positive sense of the word… not angels. Too often we forget that fact to our peril.

"The song of these living creatures is simply an act of adoring praise and thanks. We are meant, reading this passage, to see with the Psalmist [in Revelation] that all creation is dependent on God and worships him in its own way. That alone is worth pondering as a striking contrast to how most of us view the animal kingdom. But the contrast with the 24 elders is then made all the more striking. Creation as a whole simply worships God; the humans who represent God's people understand why they do so. 'You deserve’, they say, 'to receive glory and honour and power, because you created all things.' There it is: the ' e' that distinguishes humans from other animals, however noble those animals may be in their own way. Humans are given the capacity to reflect, to understand what's going on. And, in particular, to express that understanding in worship." Biblical scholar N.T. Wright

And now we return to what makes us different—namely that we understand we are

worshipping. Wright concludes…

"Worship, after all, is the most central human activity. Certainly it's the most central Christian activity…. Worship is what we were made for; worship with a because in it is what marks us out as genuine human beings." N.T. Wright

That does seem to be a unique feature of humanity—this connection of saying “because” and worshipping our Creator. There also is one place where science, Scripture, and human uniqueness meet.

What Does It Mean to Be Human? Reflections from the Biblical Scholar N.T. Wright

So often “faith and science” is not a dialogue, but a science monologue with theologians listening in. 

That’s why this piece from the prominent New Testament scholar N.T. Wright caught my attention. He begins by citing this passage from Revelation 4:

6 In the middle of the throne, and all around the throne, were four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind. 7 The first creature was like a lion, the second creature was like an ox, the third creature had a human face, and the fourth creature was like a flying eagle. 8 Each of the four creatures had six wings, and they were full of eyes all round and inside. Day and night they take no rest, as they say, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, Who Was and Who Is and Who Is to Come." 9 When the creatures give glory and honour and thanksgiving to the one who is sitting on the throne, the one who lives for ever and ever, 10 the twenty-four elders fall down in front of the one who is sitting on the throne, and worship the one who lives for ever and ever. They throw down their crowns in front of the throne, saying, 11 "0 Lord our God, you deserve to receive glory and honour and power, because you created all things; because of your will they existed and were created." Revelation 4

Wright then begins his reflection with the central question—our nature as human beings.

Scientists and anthropologists have often asked themselves, “What is it that humans can do that computers can't do?” Computers, after all, can play chess better than most of us. They can work out answers to all kinds of questions that would take us a lot longer. Some people have boldly declared that, though at the moment computers can't do quite everything that we can, they will one day overtake us. The writer David Lodge wrote a powerful novel on this theme, entitled Thinks . . . The heroine eventually discovers the answer: humans can weep; and humans can forgive. Those are two very powerful and central human activities. They take place in a quite different dimension from anything a computer can do. But without them, we would be less than human.

I stepped back for a moment—is forgiving and weeping the best answer? In a way, it seemed to me like a trick. Of course, the laptop on which I’m typing can’t produce tears. Let's see what he does next.

A similar question is often posed: 'What can humans do that animals can't do?' Again, some scientists have tried to insist that we humans are simply 'naked apes', a more sophisticated version of apes perhaps, but still within the same continuum. This is a trickier question than the one about computers, but to get straight to the point: in our present passage, the main difference is that humans can say the word 'because'. In particular, they can say it about God himself.

I’ll leave it there for this post and return next week, but not before asking a question, “What does it mean to say ‘Because’”? I take it signify that we are able to draw conclusions, to be able to make connections. As human beings, we're able to transcend, to step back, to say about ourselves “I am a person thinking, weeping, or worshiping." That’s why. 

That seemed like a “because,” and not just any “because,” but one that defines our humanity. 

What do you think?

The Resurrection of Christ

To celebrate this great day of Easter, I turn to two great theologians. 

An Icon of the Resurrection of Christ

The first is brilliant (and sometimes overly dense) Swiss theologian, Hans Urs Von Balthasar, 

If one does away with the fact of the Resurrection, one also does away with the Cross, for both stand and fall together, and one would then have to find a new center for the whole message of the gospel.

I also had to quote something from the greatest living New Testament scholar (by my lights), N. T. Wright’s whose book on the Resurrection may be the most important new book I’ve read in the past decade: 

Jesus’s resurrection is the beginning of God’s new project not to snatch people away from earth to heaven but to colonize earth with the life of heaven. That, after all, is what the Lord’s Prayer is about.

And 

The resurrection completes the inauguration of God’s kingdom. . . . It is the decisive event demonstrating that God’s kingdom really has been launched on earth as it is in heaven.

Finally from Wright, 

The message of Easter is that God’s new world has been unveiled in Jesus Christ and that you’re now invited to belong to it.

As Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:17, "So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!"

Today, let’s say yes to God’s invitation to a resurrected and new life.

Getting it Wright: On Rob Bell & Heaven

NT Wright, possibly talking about "heaven"

As I’m preparing the lead my Wednesday night class on Rob Bell’s Love Wins, here’s what makes me thrilled and what makes me uncomfortable about Bell. (To your left is not Rob Bell, but N. T. Wright, who will appear again at the end of this post.)

The tough part first… 


Bell writes in The Love Wins Companion, that, "when Jesus talked about heaven, he mostly talked about a dimension, a way of living, the accessibility of the life of God, right here, right now, in this world."

To channel Bell (actually, his style, if you don’t know it, goes something like this):  A dimension? Which one? The Fifth Dimension? They stopped recording music decades ago. Is that the eleventh dimension in physicist Brian Greene’s string theory? I thought that was inaccessible to us four-dimensional creatures. (Sorry that was fun... Sometimes his style is just a bit grating.)

But, more seriously, how about “mostly”? Is that really so? Did Jesus really talk “mostly” about “right here, right now” with “heaven”? Let’s just take one example from the Sermon on the Mount. What about the words of judgment in Matthew 7:21, 

Not everyone who says to me 'Lord, Lord' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.

And says in the next sentence, “On that day…” That day sure doesn’t sound like this day. It seems like something in the future.

OK, that’s eating broccoli before dessert, as it were…

But what about the good parts of Love Wins? And there are several. Yes, when Jesus teaches the disciples to pray “Thy will be done/on earth as it is in heaven,” we are asking for what God wants here to become realized now. It is “the life of God, right here, right now, in this world.” We are doing what U2's Bono rightly says. "Our purpose is to bring heaven to earth in the micro as well as the macro"

Put another way, when Bell is right when he’s properly taking in Wright--by which I mean the insights of the New Testament scholar, N. T. Wright, who wrote about the life of heaven in light of Easter: 

Jesus’s resurrection is the beginning of God’s new project not to snatch people away from earth to heaven but to colonize earth with the life of heaven. That, after all, is what the Lord’s Prayer is about.

So heaven is both the now and the later. We can’t forget either side of that dialectic.

What do you think?

(And, if you want to see what I conclude about heaven and hell, see this blog post.)

Easter Sunday: A Reflection on the Resurrection of Christ

Because I only have one entry on the Resurrection of Christ, I assembled quotes from two great theologians. The first comes from a brilliant (and sometimes overly dense) Swiss theologian, Hans Urs Von Balthasar, 

If one does away with the fact of the Resurrection, one also does away with the Cross, for both stand and fall together, and one would then have to find a new center for the whole message of the gospel.

I also had to quote something from the greatest living New Testament scholar (by my lights), N. T. Wright’s whose book on the Resurrection may be the most important new book I’ve read in the past decade: 

Jesus’s resurrection is the beginning of God’s new project not to snatch people away from earth to heaven but to colonize earth with the life of heaven. That, after all, is what the Lord’s Prayer is about.

And 

The resurrection completes the inauguration of God’s kingdom. . . . It is the decisive event demonstrating that God’s kingdom really has been launched on earth as it is in heaven.

Finally, 

The message of Easter is that God’s new world has been unveiled in Jesus Christ and that you’re now invited to belong to it.

Today, let’s say yes to God’s invitation.

Lord, on this day of victory, I celebrate the great Good News of Jesus’s Resurrection.