Jesus and the Victory of God (reissue) (Christian Origins and the Question of God)

This was a Xmas gift for my husband and he absolutely loves it!

All the books were all very good, enjoyed them all.

This is without doubt, the best book in the entire series. I got this while studying at Oxford - and when it comes to preaching on the gospels, I found it better than any bible commentary. A lot of fuss has been made about NT Wright, and though being a brilliant writer and thinker, much of his work has been overrated. This, however, is magnificent. The history of the Jesus history is the fruit of lengthy, thoughtful and careful study - and his exegesis of the Gospel texts is lively, groundbreaking at times, and easy to read.The biggest weakness with the book is frequently cited by critics, and I think they are right. Namely that, as part of his interpretive framework, Wright, he gives a central place to the belief that Jesus' contemporaries felt that - though their ancestors had physically returned from exile in Babylon centuries earlier - they themselves remained captive in their spirits, dominated as they were by a new empire - the Romans. I personally think this is right, but that Wright makes a little too much of this. However, given the magnitude of his work, the ingenuity of his interpretation and the lightness of his writing style, this is a fairly minor critique.I would thoroughly recommend this book to preachers and go so far as to say it is necessary reading for students of the New Testament.