Gerald Bray's latest editorial, "The Wrighteousness of God" (Churchman 123:2 [2009]: 99-104), reviews N. T. Wright's Justification: God's Plan and Paul's Vision (2009).
Part of his conclusion:
If he [i.e, Wright] chooses to write a book similar to Mr. Piper’s in length, then so be it—we need to hear the other side of the story in order to be able to evaluate which of them has the better case. Alas, it has to be said that Bishop Wright has let us down badly. He himself admits that he was rushed for time and could not do justice to his subject; he did not even manage to send his draft to Mr. Piper for comment, as politeness dictated, considering that Mr. Piper had shared his thoughts with him before presuming to publish them. The result is that the book bears all the hallmarks of hasty production. It is full of digressions, personal anecdotes which appear to have no purpose other than to win sympathy for the author, and random attacks against unnamed people who are supposed to be typical of popular modern Evangelicals. Whereas Mr. Piper is unfailingly gracious and sticks rigorously to his subject, Bishop Wright verges on the downright rude and wanders all over the place, with the result that it is often hard to know whether he is addressing Mr. Piper’s concerns or not (103-4).Read the whole thing.
