Simply Jesus by N.T. Wright

The thesis of the book is fairly simple: the popular versions of the liberal and conservative views of Christianity are defective, because they omit an accurate understanding of the Kingdom of God. The popular conservative view is too pietist (Jesus died so we can go to Heaven when we die: and that's it) and the liberal view too tied to this-worldly means and measures (to the point of idolatry of the state, IMnsHO).

This obviously isn’t fair to the saints in both camps, but is a good enough description of the pop versions that the book is needed as a corrective.

Wright is a historian with details at his fingertips: he is able to make short work of claims that "Jesus never did miraculous healing." Central to his thesis is the question of what Jews of that era would have thought of the term "Kingdom of God" and he constructs a fairly convincing argument that this need not have meant immediate rule of God everywhere.

Jesus showed what the Kingdom of God was going to look like, and it isn’t

• Somewhere else. It starts here and will be here.
  
• State-based. (History bears this out, though Wright doesn’t go into that.)
  
• Obviously victorious by the world’s standards. Jesus wasn’t.
  

It is

• The obligation of Christians to work towards it.
  
• Expressed in mostly-obscure charity. It is rarely (Wilberforce) well known.
  

Of course Wright’s approach is a model like the others, and no doubt needs a little corrective itself. But never mind the minor details: if Jesus returned tonight and we joined in welcoming Him, what would He say about our contribution to His Kingdom?

Read it.