Customer Reviews

For All The Saints?: Remembering The Christian Departed

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

N.T. Wright, recently appointed Anglican bishop of Durham, has had a distinguished academic and writing career as well, having taught at both Oxford and Cambridge, and being a frequent lecturer at Ivy League schools in America. He has authored theology texts, bible commentaries and histories, as well as devotional texts. This slim volume incorporates a bit of each of these types of literature, looking at the way Anglican tradition has treated our memory and understanding of the departed (the saints and others), as well as his own views on what a more biblically-based understanding would look like.

The text of this book grew out of lectures and sermons Wright delivered while canon theologian of Westminster Abbey. As part of his development of the subject, Wright explores the theology present in various hymns sung by Anglicans, particularly those around All Saints Day, the first of November. Wright admits the divisions that exist in Anglican polity, the tension between catholic and protestant sensibilities, and the problems with trying to come up with once-and-for-all formulations. In his first chapter, Wright looks at the development of ideas from the medieval times, including purgatory, limbo and other such doctrines not explicitly found in scripture. He concludes with different ways one may question such traditions, deciding for himself the best course of action to be a 'fresh reading of the New Testament' and recognition of more modern developments affecting the church.

Wright's second chapter lays out some of his ideas. He dismisses the idea of universal salvation (saying that, despite the fact that he was congratulated once upon a time for being a universal salvation-ist, he is not) as being the modern-day replacement for the idea of purgatory, and is often meaningless in its construct. Wright takes the bible seriously about heaven and hell without attaching too much literalism to the descriptions of the bible. Perhaps the most intriguing idea was the sense that humanity bearing the image of God is as much a vocation as it is a part of our being -- we are called to be Christlike, being in the image of God here understood as something we do as much as it is something we are.

Wright's third chapter will most likely appeal only to Anglicans -- it deals with liturgical issues surrounding All Saints and All Souls commemorations. The fourth chapter similarly deals the the 'Kingdom season', another liturgical/calendrical issue for Anglicans. The short conclusion, however, has a wonderful and brief discussion of how and why we continue to pray for the departed, if the idea of purgatory is no longer what it was. Wright's discussion of Professor Sir Norman Anderson and his unexpected argument in favour of the continued practice is a gem.

For Anglicans, this is a very worthwhile book. For other Christians, parts will have direct impact and interest, and the rest will demonstrate how other faithful Christians practice prayer and remembrance. At a mere 76 pages, this is a quick but valuable read.

Noted Scripture scholar and Anglican Bishop of Durham N. T. Wright is no stranger to controversy. A moderate within the Reformed strain of Anglicanism, he has issued thought provoking research that has caused the Church to better understand the Jewish roots of Christianity while also infuriating many Protestants by challenging their standard reading of St. Paul's epistles regarding the issue of justification. Simultaneous with his more technical works, he has also released a number of more popular works aimed at a general audience seeking to grasp disputed issues in the Church. He is the rare example of a Christian author who can both research the foundations of Christianity and teach the faith of the Church.

In For All the Saints?, Wright is aiming at the general audience in explaining his thoughts on what happens after we die. In a move that is sure to aggrivate all parties, he rejects praying to saints but accepts prayers for the dead. In the former case, he fully accepts that the saints in heaven might well be praying for us but sees no Scriptural justification for asking them to do so. One might challenge his Reformed presuppositions, but he consisently applies them and does not attack straw men. The result might be a predictable rejection of the belief in seeking the intercession of the saintly departed, but is a well thought out and sincere one.

It is very interesting how he approaches the issue of prayers for the dead. Wright concedes this was a Jewish practice that was adopted by the early Church and seeks to apply it within a Reformed framework. Rejecting the Western medieval notion of a tripartite Church - triumphant in heaven, expectant in purgatory, and militant on earth - he holds a bipartite Church that is both triumphant and expectant in heaven and militant on earth. The Church in heaven is triumphant as they are with Christ forever but expectant as they are not complete since they have not yet been resurrected. It is for the completion of God's purpose in their lives that we may pray for the saintly departed.

Throughout the book, Wright seeks to give latitude to those outside his ecclesial tradition while remaining faithful to his own principles. For All the Saints? stands as an excellent example of bringing a Catholic outlook into the Reformed tradition. For the more sectarian in that tradition, it will only confirm their ill feelings towards Wright, but for those honestly wrestling with these difficult issues, it is essential reading.

I have seen some reviews stating that this is the true Anglican view of life after death, but no this is what the Bible actually teaches about life after death. This is an excellent little book with only one draw back and that is it gets too much into the Church calendar and discussing it as if Wright is reacting to a recent celebration of All Saints Day or All Souls Day. Regardless, this book is great for those who do not have the time (but I must say it is well worth the time) to read his larger work "The Resurrection of the Son of God." This book is very short (could be considered a long pamphlet) and can be read in a couple of hours.

I eagerly anticipated this book, from the brief reference in Surprised by Hope. "Surprised by Hope" is a deep treatise, incomplete only in that it doesn't really address what happens to people when they die. In "Surprised" N.T. Wright only obliquely refers to our time between death and resurrection, referring the reader to more detail in his book "For All the Saints?". Since this was the primary thing I was struggling to understand, I was excited to obtain this book from a friend and devour it.

Wright's initial question in the book is, "Where are they now?" Where are those loved ones who left us, now? Quite obviously, they do not go to Heaven when they did. Are they in Sheol? Are they experiencing psychopannychism? Are they in Paradise, a place where souls are with God until the Resurrection? Wright begins with this question, and then says we need to investigate a number of other issues before we can answer it. He then ends with the question- *without ever answering it*! His prepatory investigations are very good, and very helpful, but he never gets around to the stated point of the book. He'll mention the idea that we will be in paradise after death, without defining it. He'll mention the thief on the cross, but with no discussion of where the Greek word "today" might fit into Jesus' sentence, lacking punctuation in the original. There is little to no thought for what happens at death to those who will be on the wrong side on Judgment Day, since if they pass on straight to Hell (contrary to the teaching of scripture), then the game is up and Judgment Day becomes just a rubber stamp on reality. Wright ends with a more poetic than theological passing reference to "resting in peace and being raised in glory". This is all very true. But it doesn't really get to the heart of the matter.

In between he addresses a number of other issues. He very fittingly harps on the tragic misunderstanding of Heaven by Christendom, pointing out how clearly the Gospels, Paul, and the Early Church all point to the Kingdom as God's reign, on Earth and Heaven, now and in the future. Wright gives a very helpful corrective to the practice of praying to or through the "saints", as not something forbidden as much as lacking scriptural support and something somewhat sad, as people take a step away from the immediate connection to God explicitely offered by Jesus through himself. And most of all, Wright helps us remember that the whole point is not what happens when we die- it's what happens after what happens when we die. It's all about resurrection of the body. That's what ultimately brings meaning to creation, that's the point of Jesus coming to Earth, that's what ends the tyranny of sin and death, that's our ultimate hope. Without that, we have no reason for being, and as Paul says, are more to be pitied than all others.

Unfortunately, in this work, Wright has a tendency to get bogged down. There are far too many references to his other works, as if the reader is supposed to have a stack of Wright books in front of him in order to understand this one slim volume. The long chapter on liturgy will really only relate to the High Churched, as Wright makes a number of points based on how the Anglican Church feasts are arranged. It is important to have meaning for high holy days, and this is important for Anglicans, but for many Christians, this aspect is rather irrelevant and perplexing, as we haven't the faintest notion of the regular cycle of feasts.

Please do not misundertand me. I think Wright says some good things here- some things that need to be said. But there isn't enough in 75 pages. He could have greatly expanded this if he didn't have all the references to other books, and indeed, I believe he did- it's a more recent book entitled "Surprised by Hope". And it would be a much better book with a different starting point. This is not a book that answers "Where is my departed loved one?" It answers "What is our ultimate hope." But only in the most cursory manner. This is the preface to "Surprised by Hope". Go read that.

THIS EXCELENT BOOK REFLECTS THE BEST SHORT SYNOPSIS THAT I HAVE READ OF THE PRINCIPAL ANGLICAN CONCEPTS OF WHAT HAPPENS WHEN ONE LEAVES THIS PRESENT EARTHLY LIFE.

Not to take away from the excellent reviews here -- but as an Anglo-Catholic Episcopalian, I was disappointed at Wright's lack of understanding of the Communion of Saints. He states that the practice of the invocation of the saints "seems to me to undermine, or actually to deny by implication, something which is promised again and again in the New Testament: immediacy of access to God through Jesus Christ and in the Spirit". NOTHING could be further from the truth about the invocation of the saints! For a valuable corrective to Wright on this issue, readers of this book should read "Be Still and Know" by one of the greatest of the Archbishops of Canterbury, Michael Ramsey. Ramsey states, "It is thus within the reflection of Christ's glory that the prayers of all the saints continue. Within the family of the saints we may ask the prayers of those who are near to the vision of God, and we may pray for all in earth or Paradise or heaven." He also says, "As God-bearer, Mary has helped in the creation of the Communion of Saints. As creature with ourselves she gives glory to her creator and ours, to her savior and ours. Herself more glorious than the cherubim and higher than the seraphim, she leads our praises to God." I wish Wright's book had reflected some of this ancient Christian wisdom.