This is part 2 of a two-part review of The Mission of God by Christopher J. H. Wright. View part 1 here.
Insights Gleaned
Theological Insights
The centrality of God’s mission is an obvious theological insight that Wright’s work restores to center stage. What is helpful within this is his Christological or Messianic focus. In an effort to shy away from typological interpretation the Old Testament is taken by some Christians to be disconnected from the New Testament. Understanding Christ as the divine agent of Yahweh, as the person through whom the mission of God is accomplished, unites not only the mission of God and work of God between the testaments but also restores a proper Christotelic perspective to the Old Testament.
Another theological insight gained from Wright’s work involves the care and concern of God for all of creation as expressed through the scope of the mission of God. The vast scope of the mission of God expresses that God’s love extends far beyond the human bounds to which it is normally constrained by conservative theological interpretation. This enables and empowers the church to be involved in the care of God’s creation.
Methodological Insights
The most important insight gained from this book is the importance and fruitfulness of reading the Bible missionally. A reading of the text which strips or ignores the missional basis of the Bible itself is a reading which is essentially robbing the text of its power. As the Bible is understood to be an incarnational communication of God to mankind, we must also recognize that the Bible is communicated by God incarnationally primarily because it is missional in basis. God communicates to man, in a medium familiar to man, so that man can join God in His mission.
Another helpful methodological insight is the reminder that often the hermeneutical lens employed will in part determine the theological conclusions reached through study of a text. While in the case of The Mission of God the hermeneutical approach and theological conclusions are beneficial and sound, there are other examples of hermeneutical lenses which may not lead to theological conclusions which are as sound or as fruitful as those reached by Wright.
Questions Raised
While overall Wright’s work must be considered one of the finest examples of biblical theology available it is not without its shortcomings and flaws.
Theological Questions
Wright covers adequately a host of theological issues in his book. However, one seemingly important theological topic left untouched is the Holy Spirit. There are a number of reasons that this could have been overlooked. Wright admits that his primary focus is on the Old Testament text, and the Spirit plays a less visible role in the Old Testament than in the New Testament. However, this brings up the common practice in Evangelical circles today of radically dividing the work and presence of God among His people in the Old Testament from God’s work and presence among His people in the New Testament. Since there are already questions in this area of study, Wright’s silence on the issue was all the more disappointing. Wright also could have avoided the subject because of length. The Mission of God is already well over 500 pages without a discussion of the role of the Holy Spirit. Regardless of the reason, the absence is a disappointing shortcoming of the book.[1]
Methodological Questions
The greatest methodological question coming out of Wright’s work is the validity of his hermeneutic. Two things ought to be said in reflecting on this question. First, everyone who reads a text will approach it with some sort of hermeneutical framework; there is no tabula rasa approach to the reading of Scripture. The issue then becomes having the appropriate hermeneutical lens. This change in focus precipitates not only the question, “what is the right hermeneutical lens?” but also the question, “how do I know when I have attained the right hermeneutical lens?” Wright proposes that the validity of the hermeneutical lens employed be determined by the heuristic fruit that it bears. This is a dangerous way to state the criteria for evaluating a hermeneutical framework because it does not define the type of fruit for which we are looking.
However, from examining and synthesizing Wright’s work in The Mission of God we see two implicit criteria for evaluating heuristic fruitfulness. First, heuristic fruitfulness must be measured in terms of its ability to explain the raw exegetical data. This is why Wright spends such a large percentage of the book dealing with the major themes of the Bible: the character of God (monotheism), the person of Christ, idolatry, the covenants, biblical ethics, creation, community, etc. Wright must explain how all these major themes of the Bible fit into the hermeneutical lens which he is proposing. If Wright succeeds in incorporating these themes into his grand narrative of God’s mission then his hermeneutic has value.
Another test for examining heuristic fruitfulness comes in the issue of praxis. The theological conclusions reached through the exposition of texts and themes must have bearing upon the people of God in their attempt to carry out the mission of God in the context of their world. One way this concern of Wright’s evidences itself is in sections where he discusses creation care and the church’s relationship to those suffering from HIV/AIDs. Most impressively this focus becomes clear in the epilogue as Wright ends his tome much like a sermon. There Wright expresses his desire that his work change our own biblical perception and worldview so that we conform our own lives and missions to the much grander mission of God.
Conclusion
Christopher J. H. Wright’s, The Mission of God, is a valuable contribution to several fields of study. It engages the field of hermeneutics in seeking to define and express a missional reading of the Bible. It engages the field of Old Testament theology by interacting with major biblical themes as found in the Old Testament. It engages the field of missiology by providing a biblical basis for mission. Most of all The Mission of God challenges the reader to re-orient himself, or herself, around God’s mission, so that life is actively used in service to God. May we all submit ourselves to the great God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and actively engage our world with His mission.
[1] It should be noted that Wright has not avoided the topic of the Holy Spirit nor does he deny the presence or role of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament (or in the New!). For more on Wright’s view of the Holy Spirit see Christopher J. H. Wright Knowing the Holy Spirit Through the Old Testament (Downers Grove: IVP, 2006).
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