It’s the continuity question that confuses me. Does Tom Wright believe that our kingdom-building efforts in this life are in some sense building the new heaven and new earth? Or are our efforts at promoting justice, beauty, etc. good for this life only?

Neither actually James. The renewed heavens and earth will be a Genesis act of new creation and grace. However, as we see at the end of 1 Corinthians 15, in light of the Resurrection, we must work in the Lord because our labor is not in vain. I’ve heard him say he doesn’t know how every labor for the Lord, from a great work of music to a child’s Sunday School drawing, will be incorporated in the stuff of new creation, but he is confident that they will. Just as our bodies will be continuous with the stuff of our present bodies even as they strangely transcend it (just read the post-resurrection accounts of Jesus), so the fruits of our present labor for the Lord will endure even as all things are made new.

I love the fact that Tom places the responsibility for evangelizing back into the context of the whole community. I think our American culture has tended to view it as a primarily individual effort, and while that component can certainly be effective, I think the greater truth of the gospel will most certainly be the witness of a healthy, Jesus shaped, justice-beauty focused, community. Postmodernism demands a context for truth, and the faith community (if it is healthy and productive) is the greatest resource we have to advance the reality of the Kingdom.

I found a link to your blog via InternetMonk a few months ago and have been reading along – i’ve benefitted immensely from the posts about Surprised by Hope and it is high on my ‘to read’ list. NT Wright’s understanding of heaven as God’s dimension was a very comforting and helpful insight for me.
(The rest of this comment meanders a bit from the topic above and deals with one of your books).
I read your book “Turning to Jesus” earlier this year and it clarified/affirmed something I had struggled with for years as my conversion was more in the sociological motif, but i was raised in a decision-theology environment (you can imagine the internal spiritual angst that could occur, especially as a child and young teen, when your spiritual experience doesn’t line up with what your faith community teaches as the ‘right way’ to convert).
One issue I don’t remember the book addressing is how evangelism works within different conversion models. When it comes to evangelism I have only heard it taught from a decision-theology/pray a prayer/4 spiritual laws paradigm (and when faith stories are told in my spiritual community it is always with a reference to personal decision and no acknowledgement of socilaization or sacramental conversion).
Are there other dimensions to evangelism aside from the one I described above? How does one teach a child about coming to faith within a personal decision faith community (such as my church), when the parents don’t necessarily hold that view as the ‘one and only way’ of conversion?
As another aside, after finding your blog and reading your book I found out my little sister (junior at North Park) took one of your classes last year – her name is HannaH Schultz, she wanted me to post and let you know. Small world.

Just ordered my copy finally. Standard shipping though =(

In Defense of the Faith Apologetic Ministry » Blog Archive » McKnight Reviews N.T. Wright’s Latest Book

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