The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible's Grand Narrative

Front Cover
InterVarsity Press, Oct 23, 2006 - Religion - 581 pages
Winner, 2007 Christianity Today Missions/Global Affairs Book Most Christians would agree that the Bible provides a basis for mission. But Christopher Wright boldly maintains that mission is bigger than that--there is in fact a missional basis for the Bible! The entire Bible is generated by and is all about God's mission. In order to understand the Bible, we need a missional hermeneutic of the Bible, an interpretive perspective that is in tune with this great missional theme. We need to see the "big picture" of God's mission and how the familiar bits and pieces fit into the grand narrative of Scripture. Beginning with the Old Testament and the groundwork it lays for understanding who God is, what he has called his people to be and do, and how the nations fit into God's mission, Wright gives us a new hermeneutical perspective on Scripture. This new perspective provides a solid and expansive basis for holistic mission. Wright emphasizes throughout a holistic mission as the proper shape of Christian mission. God's mission is to reclaim the world--and that includes the created order--and God's people have a designated role to play in that mission.
 

Contents

THE BIBLE AND MISSION
29
Searching for a Missional Hermeneutic
33
Shaping a Missional Hermeneutic
48
THE GOD OF MISSION
71
The Living God Makes Himself Known in Israel
75
The Living God Makes Himself Known in Jesus Christ
105
The Living God Confronts Idolatry
136
THE PEOPLE OF MISSION
189
The Life of Gods Missional People
357
THE ARENA OF MISSION
393
Mission and Gods Earth
397
Mission and Gods Image
421
God and the Nations in Old Testament Vision
454
God and the Nations in New Testament Mission
501
Epilogue
531
Bibliography
537

Gods Elect People Chosen for Blessing
191
Gods Particular People Chosen for All
222
Gods Model of Redemption The Exodus
265
Gods Model of Restoration The Jubilee
289
The Span of Gods Missional Covenant
324

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About the author (2006)

Christopher J. H. Wright (PhD, Cambridge) is international ministries director of the Langham Partnership, providing literature, scholarships, and preaching training for pastors in Majority World churches and seminaries. He has written many books including commentaries on Deuteronomy, Jeremiah, Lamentations, and Ezekiel, The Mission of God, Cultivating the Fruit of the Spirit, Old Testament Ethics for the People of God, and Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament. An ordained priest in the Church of England, Chris spent five years teaching the Old Testament at Union Biblical Seminary in India, and thirteen years as academic dean and then principal of All Nations Christian College, an international training center for cross-cultural mission in England. He was chair of the Lausanne Theology Working Group from 2005-2011 and the chief architect of The Cape Town Commitment from the Third Lausanne Congress, 2010.

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