This past semester was the first time I spent any extensive period of time studying the thought of N.T. Wright. Previously I had dealt with various bits and pieces, but to engage in a deeper reading of some of his material was beneficial. This is especially the case as the Piper-Wright debate has come to the forefront with Wright's recent publication of Justification: God's Plan and Paul's Vision.

One of the things I appreciated was the careful way in which we worked through his theology this spring, recognizing both its strength and weaknesses. In no way do I consider myself an expert on Wright and to take this approach was helpful, particularly as a greater divide seems to be growing between those who side with Piper and those who side with Wright on issues like justification and election. But that's an issue for another time.

What stood out to me especially was Wright's continual effort to keep in mind a more holistic view of the covenant and redemption. This, from his book, Paul: In Fresh Perspective, I found helpful:

But the word 'call' itself [in Romans 8:30], and the fact that 'justification' is not about 'how I get saved' but 'how I am declared to be a member of God's people', must always have an eye to the larger purposes of the covenant. Indeed, to forget this, as has often been done within western theology both Catholic and Protestant, is to make a mistake not too unlike that for which Paul chides his fellow countrymen. The point of the covenant was to deal with idolatry and sin in order that the world as a whole could be rescued—and there is no question, once we read Romans 5-8, that that is where Paul intends his argument to go. Thus the point of human beings being called by the gospel to turn from idolatry and sin to worship the true and living God is that they might themselves be rescued and that through their rescue, and the new community which they then form, God's purposes to rescue the whole world might be advanced. This is why, in Romans 5:17, Paul speaks of the justified 'reigning in life'; the aim is not simply that they should themselves be rescued from disaster, but that through them God would rule his new creation. And this is why, too, the coming together of Jews and Gentiles in the one family is so central to justification. It is not simply about making life easier for Gentile converts who might not like the thought of circumcision, as some have said in trying to pour scorn on the 'new perspective'. It is, as Ephesians 3 saw so gloriously, that through this creation of a Jew-plus-Gentile family the living God might declare to the principalities and powers that their time is up, and might launch the whole project of a new creation (122).

Since I have written before of the tendency of evangelicalism to reduce salvation to something merely individual, I won't add to it here. This brief excerpt from Wright is just a good example of the helpful correctives that we ought to give due attention to.