Quotes from NT Wright

Almost all the early Christian Fathers were opposed to the death penalty, even though it was of course standard practice across the ancient world.

Within orthodoxy, there is always a danger of faith collapsing into fear.

We must be constantly aware of our responsibility in the Communion of Saints, without giving our honored predecessors the final say or making them an "alternatvie source," independent of scripture itself. When they speak with one voice, we should listen very carefully. They may be wrong. They sometimes are. But we ignore them at our peril.

All Christian language about the future is a set of signposts pointing into a mist.

Salvation, then, is not "going to heaven" but "being raised to life in God's new heaven and new earth.

people who believe in the resurrection, in God making a whole new world in which everything will be set right at last, are unstoppably motivated to work for that new world in the present.

I feel about John ['s gospel] like I feel about my wife; I love her very much, but I wouldn't claim to understand her. (Following Jesus, p. 27.)

Many people think that being Christian makes you sort of subhuman or, at least, less than fully human. Guys out there on the street (people think) are having a wonderful time enjoying human life to the fullest, and we in the church are sort of cramped and constricted. Well, things shouldn't be that way. Being a Christian is supposed to make you more truly human , more fully yourself. That means that you are supposed to become somebody who is reflecting the image of God.

we will arrange for 'religion' to become a small subdepartment of ordinary life; it will be quite safe — harmless, in fact — with church life carefully separated off from everything else in the world, whether politics, art, sex, economics, or whatever.

28"Are you having a real struggle? Come to me! Are you carrying a big load on your back? Come to me—I'll give you a rest! 29Pick up my yoke and put it on; take lessons from me! My heart is gentle, not arrogant. You'll find the rest you deeply need. 30My yoke is easy to wear; my load is easy to bear.

If what we want is God's justice, coming to sort things out, we will do better to get entirely out of the way and let God do his own work, rather than supposing our burst of anger (which will most likely have all sorts of nasty bits to it, such as wounded pride, malice and envy) will somehow help God do what needs to be done.

All history involves selection, and it is always human beings who do the selecting.