Christmas Letter from Tom Wright

Dear Webmaster220, As we all know, this has been a strange year. Nobody could have predicted what we've been through, and are still going through. We will all look back on 2020 and shake our heads. Some, sadly, will look back with particular sorrow at the loss of a close friend or family member. At the time of writing, reports suggest that every single day in the United States as many people are dying of Coronavirus as died on that terrible day, September 11 2001. Nothing like this has been known in my lifetime. I sometimes think the closest parallel with how we feel must be with those who somehow lived through the two world wars. For myself, I've been in part cushioned against the worst of it all. Given the choice, I work from home anyway, though it has been frustrating to be within five minutes walk of one of the greatest libraries in the world and not to be able to go and look things up. Maggie and I settled into a 'lockdown' routine, back in the spring, and were fortunate to be able to take daily walks in the magnificent private garden of New College (founded in 1379, so not quite as 'new' as once it was). Maggie, ever the photographer, took splendid photographs of the shrubs and trees and the very vocal robin who followed us around day by day. Meanwhile most things at Wycliffe Hall, where I now teach part time, were on line, including daily worship services, and it's been good to see how creative and positive the students have been at making those times of worship real and vital. The staff have coped magnificently, not least when Michael Lloyd, the Principal, was himself hospitalized with COVID for several days. We are grateful for many mercies. My own work has taken surprising turns. When the pandemic began, TIME magazine asked me to write a short piece about it – and the reaction showed me that I had better explain some things a lot more, which I did in various lectures and then in the book God and the Pandemic which my publishers rushed out, fearful that the crisis would be over before it hit the shops (alas, no!). So that book, which came out in the spring, has joined Broken Signposts, and the three volumes of my collected essays, Interpreting Jesus, Interpreting Paul and Interpreting Scripture. In the background of all this, like a running theme, has been the finishing of the Galatians commentary, due out from Eerdmans and SPCK in spring 2021. I have lectured at Wycliffe Hall on Second Corinthians, in the early spring, and then on Philippians over the last two months. Lecturing while wearing a mask as well as the usual microphone contraptions offers particular challenges. And when the listeners, suitably 'distanced' from one another, are wearing masks as well, the speakers' normal hope for audience reaction is considerably thwarted. But I enjoyed it . . . Christmas, of course, poses a different challenge again. Maggie and I are wrestling with how to fulfill family hopes of getting together within the framework of the government's clear – and obviously necessary – guidelines. Better a frustrated Christmas, we have said, than a sorrowful Easter. I suspect that many readers of this will have faced similar questions. But then Christmas was never about making things easy or cosy. A good friend wrote a sermon not long ago entitled 'Let's Put Herod Back into Christmas', pointing out that the Christmas story was never what we have made of it in popular western culture. It's about serious danger and God coming to that place to be with us and to accomplish his rescuing work right there. That is my prayer for all of you right now. Warmest good wishes, Tom Wright Prof N T Wright Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, OX2 6PW PS: Thank you for taking part in the NTWrightonline project. We have recently recorded two new courses, 'Surprised by the God of Hope' and an Introduction to Genesis, and they will be released in 2021. I do hope you will enjoy them. Stay safe, pray for me and the family, and for the team, led by David Seemuth, who work on the courses. God bless you and make you fruitful in his service in this coming year. Copyright (C) 2020 Wisconsin Center for Christian Studies, Inc.. All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you expressed interest in online courses by N.T. Wright. Wisconsin Center for Christian Studies, Inc. 221 N Grandview Blvd Waukesha, WI 53188-3264 Add us to your address book Subscription Information Want to change how you receive these emails? You can *update your preferences or *unsubscribe from this list.  This email was sent to Webmaster220 Bible Study Blog   *the blog owner has deleted the hyperlink intentionally NT Wright N. T. Wright, one of the world's leading Bible scholars, is the chair of New Testament and Early Christianity at the School of Divinity at the University of St. Andrews, an Anglican bishop, and bestselling author. Featured on ABC News, The Colbert Report, Dateline , and Fresh Air , Wright is the award-winning author of Simply Good News, Simply Jesus, Simply Christian, Surprised by Hope, How God Became King, Scripture and the Authority of God, Surprised by Scripture, and The Case for the Psalms, as well as the recent translation of the New Testament The Kingdom New Testament and the much heralded series Christian Origins and the Question of God.  Want To Buy Books By NT Wright on Alibris?