Taking or Leaving the Resurrection

by N. T. Wright

“You see, the bodily resurrection of Jesus isn’t a take-it-or-leave-it thing, as though some Christians are welcome to believe it and others are welcome not to believe it.

Take it away, and the whole picture is totally different.

Take it away, and Karl Marx was probably right to accuse Christianity of ignoring the problems of the material world.

Take it away, and Sigmund Freud was probably right to say that Christianity is a wish-fulfillment religion.

Take it away, and Friedrich Nietzsche was probably right to say that Christianity was a religion for wimps.

Put it back, and you have a faith that can take on the postmodern world that looks to Marx, Freud and Nietzsche as its prophets, and you can beat them at their own game with the Easter news that the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.”

 For All God’s Worth: True Worship and the Calling of the Church