With most books of theology that I have read, I feel like the author is working to fit the biblical text into a pre-conceived framework. That is not the feeling I got at all from this book; from beginning to end, one senses that the author is genuinely wrestling with the text of the Scriptures, trying to understand it in its original intent as it would have been understood by those who first heard it and from within the literary and historical context within which it was written, namely the Old Testament. This book is a gem; maybe the best book I have ever read on eschatology. It opened up many windows and allowed light to shine into many rooms that were formerly in shadow for me. I loved the chapter where the author shows the structural logic of the entire biblical story. Grasping this big picture view of the Bible is so helpful when it comes time to look at the smaller passages relating to the concerns of eschatology. I appreciated also the fact that this author did not shy away from dealing head-on with many of the passages that, at first glance, seem to contradict his main premises (This was something strangely missing from N. T. Wright's, "Surprised by Hope"). The church has been for centuries plagued with Platonic dualism. It is high time that the church (regardless of denomination) proclaim its severance from Plato and that we begin to take seriously what the Bible actually says about the kingdom of God, salvation, resurrection, and cosmic redemption. This book will definitely contribute to that transformation.

N. T. Wright's book has a clear, often-repeated, singular message: The hope of the early Christian faith was bodily resurrection and a redeemed cosmos (a New Heavens and New Earth). He effectively shows how the church (both liberal and conservative) has fallen for the old Platonic dualism that pits physicality against spirituality, evidenced in the common notion that the purpose of salvation is that individuals can "go to heaven," when they die. Wright shows that this is simply not true, at least as viewed unanimously among the early church leaders and teachers. I have often heard people shrug off any interest in eschatology by saying, "I don't really care how Jesus does it, I just know that, in the end, he will win." Wright powerfully demonstrates that an accurate understanding of biblical eschatology affects everything, out motivations, out politics, our ethics, our reactions to death, everything. In other words, it is practical in the extreme. This was a great read and I can honestly say, it has had and will continue to have a profound impact on every aspect of my Christian beliefs as I reexamine all Scripture now from the perspective of God's purpose for cosmic redemption, the bodily resurrection, and the descent of the New Jerusalem to the New Earth as heaven finally and eternally becomes fused with earth. Come Lord Jesus.