I've read so many N.T. Wright books by now it has become pretty easy to know which beats he is going to hit, like the beats of your favorite song when it comes on the radio. After a while, it can be difficult not to become jaded and think that they cannot do anything that would surprise you. In the case of this book, I couldn't be more happy to be wrong! In this volume, N.T. Wright takes the single, most important event in Christianity (indeed, in world history), the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and puts it under a theological and historical microscope. He examines it from several different angles, from the view of the pagans of the Greco-Roman world, the Jewish world, even examining the writings of the second century A.D. Church Fathers, and comes to one conclusion: that the only explanation for how early Christianity grew so quickly, why it took the form that it did, and why did it carry over into the second century A.D. in relatively the same form is that the the first disciples of Jesus Christ believed that he had been raised bodily from the dead and that they had seen him after his resurrection. The word bodily must be emphasized here, as N.T. Wright points out that Christianity could have formed in the way that it did if it was some sort of spiritual resurrection or some kind of near-death resurrection, as many critics or more liberal biblical scholars have claimed. In approximately 740 pages, Mr. Wright makes an exhaustive case for believing that the Resurrection was an historical event that should be taken seriously both for the historian and for the modern Western Christian, who may have forgotten that Christ's promise of resurrection is a promise of bodily resurrection into the new creation as foretold in Revelations and the prophets, not some spiritual eternity in heaven, which takes much from the pagan beliefs of Greek philosophers like Plato rather than from actual Christian doctrine. In the past, I've had trouble recommending scholarly works on here for people who do not have a narrow interest in the subject. However, even though this book may be a true challenge for any reading level, I cannot recommend this book more highly to everyone who is interested in Christianity and Christian beliefs. This book ha made me reexamine my own faith and beliefs as well as my thoughts on the importance of Jesus Christ's resurrection and I believe it will make you do the same. I'm excited to read Mr. Wright's next book in the series, [bc:Paul and the Faithfulness of God|17842958|Paul and the Faithfulness of God (Christian Origins and the Question of God, #4)|N.T. Wright|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1379300371s/17842958.jpg|24971281][b:Paul and the Faithfulness of God|17842958|Paul and the Faithfulness of God (Christian Origins and the Question of God, #4)|N.T. Wright|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1379300371s/17842958.jpg|24971281], but I'm going to wait until the summer when I will have more time to tackle that 1,700 page behemoth.