Speaking of Good and Evil - The BAS Library
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Speaking of Good and Evil

How can we gain a biblical understanding of the social and political events of our day?

By N. T. Wright

How should we speak of God? Theologians have struggled for years with this question, wondering whether God should be described metaphorically, literally or, perhaps, some other way altogether. In recent weeks, we have been faced with a more urgent and ugly task: What language should be used to describe the events of September 11? And what can be said about the response being taken by America and Britain, with wide support elsewhere? The questions may be related, as well as the answers. As theologians turn to the Bible to find words for discussing God, so should we turn to […]

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Endnotes

1.

Study of how this works out in Paul is still in its comparative infancy, though exciting developments are starting to happen. See, for example, Richard A. Horsley, ed., Paul and Empire: Religion and Power in Roman Imperial Society (Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 1997); and Horsley, ed., Paul and Politics: Ekklesia, Israel, Imperium, Interpretation (Essays in Honor of Krister Stendahl) (Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 2000). See too, from a very different standpoint, Bruno Blumenfeld, The Political Paul: Justice, Democracy and Kingship in a Hellenistic Framework, JSNT Supplement Series 210 (Sheffield, UK: Sheffield Academic Press, 2001).

2.

On this, see N.T. Wright, Jesus and the Victory of God (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1996), ch. 12.

3.

See note 1.