“Richardson’s textual analysis on how Jesus understood himself will be a revelation to many.” — Malcolm Grundy
What are we as human beings? What is our common future? Who or what is God?
These fundamental questions are asked anew by each generation of Christians. Neil Richardson’s latest book offers a “new look” Christian faith, grounded in the Bible and Christian tradition, but demonstrating how much we have missed in the Bible and how some traditional beliefs have been misunderstood.
The person of Jesus is key to all three questions. As the “ultimate human being” and, paradoxically, the image of God, Jesus is an iconic figure for our common human future.
Neil Richardson encourages us to explore the practical outworking of this fresh look at Christianity and the impact it should have on how the Church and individual Christians exist in the world. Social justice and a greater sharing of the earth follow, and the neglected Christian theme of enjoying both God and the world, life before and after death, is investigated.
Richardson is absolutely right in proposing a “new normal” where preachers give out what they already know about the truth of textual interpretation and where ecumenists find a new language to remind us of how much we are already agreed about what we have in common. It was Bonhoeffer who said that if the gospel were really preached, we would have different people in our congregations. In this relatively brief but very accessible book, if we ‘wake up’ to what Richardson is saying, we might keep a few more people in our churches and even persuade others that this is a credible faith that can speak into times which will always be new but never normal.
Malcolm Grundy (from a review in Rural Theology)
