For All the Saints

For All the Saints?

For those who have often wondered how the various terms all fit together this is a timely little book. Tom Wright charts in simple terms the history of Church ‘expectant’ and ‘triumphant’, touching on the ‘Communion of the Saints’ which slips by us in the Apostles Creed, and Purgatory which we probably thought had been dispatched by the Protestant Reformation.
But what about ‘heaven’ or ‘paradise’? Here Wright tells us ‘the use of the word ‘heaven’ to denote the ultimate goal of the redeemed, though still almost universal at a popular level, is severely misleading and does not begin to do justice to the Christian hope’. In a carefully worked exposition, he demonstrates what the New Testament really teaches, its offer to Christians of a two stage process, the ultimate aim of which is bodily resurrection into the ‘transformed, glorious likeness of Jesus Christ’. Before that, all who have died in the faith enjoy a place of egalitarian restful happiness – no special enclosure for real saints here! Another casualty of Wright’s thesis is the soul, for with the emphasis on bodily resurrection, ‘the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace and rise in glory.’ No place here for the traditional celebration of ‘All Souls’ either, though prayers for the dead survive in an enlightened perspective.
It is a succinct and well written book. I can’t help thinking that many will wish to retain ‘heaven’, but for those who are looking for a more biblical answer to their concerns this may be a revelation. And there are plenty of references to Wright’s other books relating to this subject.

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