{"id":15743,"date":"2026-11-10T16:59:10","date_gmt":"2026-11-10T21:59:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/?p=15743"},"modified":"2026-11-10T16:59:10","modified_gmt":"2026-11-10T21:59:10","slug":"nt-wright-offers-new-definition-of-glory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2026\/11\/nt-wright-offers-new-definition-of-glory.html","title":{"rendered":"NT Wright Offers New Definition of Glory"},"content":{"rendered":"
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michael kooiman \/ commons.wikimedia.org<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Anglican pastor NT Wright has stirred up headlines after addressing what he considered to be a misunderstanding of the word \u201cglory.\u201d Wright was speaking at \u201cThe Fresh Challenge of Romans,\u201d a four-day conference at Park Cities Baptist Church, which focused on a deep-dive of Romans 5. Here, Wright pointed to what he believed to be misinterpretation being about leaving the world behind. Wright, however, said the passage had more to do with vocation and living in the world. He pointed at Romans 5:2, which states, \u201c[Jesus Christ] By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.\u201d \u201cLet\u2019s be quite clear: glory does not mean going to Heaven. It means becoming fully human, to share God\u2019s redemptive rule,\u201d said Wright, connecting it to Psalm 8 where humans are described as \u201ca little lower than the heavenly beings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wright also referred to St. Irenaeus of Lyons\u2019s treatise Against Heresies, <\/em>which stated that the glory of God is a \u201chuman being fully alive.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cGod places His image bearers into His creation, to be His agents in making this world flourish. That is their glorious task. That is who they\u2019re supposed to be,\u201d said Wright. He pushed against a worldview that sees life on earth as just an obstacle to get to heaven and stated that humanity lived for God is glory to God. \u201cBeing human is not a bad shabby old thing. We make it that, but being human is itself the way in which God wants to be reflected into His created order,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Wright is known for trying to encourage out-of-the-box thinking, particularly through his scholarship of Paul\u2019s writings. That has, however, gotten him into trouble. His book, What Saint Paul Really Said<\/em> offered a thought-provoking look at what he called the \u201cNew Perspective on Paul.\u201d Yet, while he stated he was only offering an expanded way of understanding Paul\u2019s writings, critics warned that his new way would push out certain Protestant confessionals, such as sola fide<\/em> or the idea that salvation comes through faith alone. Wright was also criticized when he seemed to suggest that Adam and Eve were \u201chuman-like creatures\u201d and that Jonah was a \u201cfolk tale.\u201d He made the comments during his \u201cAsk NT Wright Anything\u201d podcast and was swiftly criticized by those who take a literal historical perspective of the Bible. During another episode of his podcast, he waffled on a question of abortion<\/a> that quickly earned him the ire of apologists like Ken Ham. \u201cDr. Wright was asked a question about abortion on his Ask NT Wright Anything podcast (I wrote last year about the terrible answer he gave on that program to a question about science and the Bible),\u201d wrote Ham. \u201cAnd his answer was biblically and theologically atrocious! But that\u2019s not surprising because I find that when a person compromises Genesis with outside beliefs (like evolution\/millions of years), it has a detrimental effect on other areas such as we see here regarding his answer on abortion.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anglican pastor NT Wright has stirred up headlines after addressing what he considered to be a misunderstanding of the word \u201cglory.\u201d Wright was speaking at \u201cThe Fresh Challenge of Romans,\u201d a four-day conference at Park Cities Baptist Church, which focused on a deep-dive of Romans 5. Here, Wright pointed to what he believed to be…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":15746,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nNT Wright Offers New Definition of Glory<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Theologian N.T. Wright challenges traditional views of biblical glory, sparking debate over Scripture and humanity's purpose.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2026\/11\/nt-wright-offers-new-definition-of-glory.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"NT Wright Offers New Definition of Glory\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Theologian N.T. Wright challenges traditional views of biblical glory, sparking debate over Scripture and humanity's purpose.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2026\/11\/nt-wright-offers-new-definition-of-glory.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Christ News Today\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-11-10T21:59:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2026\/11\/NT-Wright_credit-michael-kooiman-commonswikimediaorg.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cecilia Buchanan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"NT Wright Offers New Definition of Glory","description":"Theologian N.T. 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