Re-Enchanting

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Re-Enchanting... Heaven - NT Wright

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Apr 29, 2026

Guest

N.T. Wright

N.T. (Tom) Wright, former Bishop of Durham and leading New Testament scholar, explores God's Homecoming and the idea of a renewed heaven-and-earth. He reframes heaven as restoration, critiques Platonic soul-ideas, contrasts interim with bodily resurrection, and weighs technology, AI, and transhumanism against Christian hope. Short, thoughtful reflections on church, culture, and imagining new creation.

01:02:27

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insights

INSIGHT

US Church Polarisation Comes From Packaged Politics

American church culture bundles political issues into rigid packages, deepening polarisation.
Wright describes shouting across walls, algorithmic reinforcement, and different meanings of 'evangelical' across the Atlantic.

insights

INSIGHT

God's Home Is Renewed Creation Not Escape

The Bible presents God's home as a fused heaven-and-earth, not an escape to a disembodied heaven.
N.T. Wright argues hymns and tradition often reflect Platonic dualism, but Scripture envisions God filling and renewing creation (Revelation 21).

insights

INSIGHT

Spirit Holds Us Until Resurrection

The Holy Spirit preserves believers' personhood after death until bodily resurrection.
Wright explains New Testament hope as Spirit-held presence with Christ, not a parked experiment awaiting resurrection.

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What Tom is reading now

01:26 • 2min

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American church polarisation observed

03:25 • 2min

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Evangelical meanings differ across the Atlantic

05:42 • 4min

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Why 'homecoming' is the right image

09:30 • 1min

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Heaven versus new creation clarified

10:31 • 2min

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Why the 'soul goes to heaven' is platonic

12:48 • 57sec

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Paul, interim death and resurrection hope

13:45 • 4min

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Unlearning 'soul' and reclaiming 'self'

17:29 • 5min

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C.S. Lewis: insights and blind spots

22:31 • 6min

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Lewis's Great Divorce and physical heaven

28:50 • 3min

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God's homecoming: rescue not evacuation

32:10 • 4min

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Cultural signs we've forgotten renewal

35:58 • 4min

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Church as advance guard of renewal

39:43 • 1min

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Technology, AI and hopeful discernment

41:10 • 5min

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Death, Dylan Thomas and divine justice

46:14 • 5min

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Transhumanist remedies parody resurrection

50:46 • 3min

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Writing God's Homecoming: process and themes

53:50 • 4min

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Imagining the new creation with humility

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In *Surprised by Hope*, N.T. Wright addresses the biblical question of what happens after we die, arguing that most Christians misunderstand the concept of heaven. Wright posits that instead of going to heaven, Christians will be resurrected, and heaven will come down to earth. He defends the bodily resurrection of Jesus and explains how this event is the prototype for the final resurrection. The book emphasizes the importance of this hope in informing current social action, evangelism, and spirituality, and it challenges a Platonized view of Christianity that undercuts the church's present mission. Wright argues that the church's mission is to build for the kingdom, living out the implications of Jesus’s resurrection in the present world.

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The Great Divorce

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In 'The Great Divorce', C.S. Lewis presents an allegorical narrative where souls from a gray, dreary town (representing hell) are given the opportunity to visit heaven. The story follows the narrator and various ghosts as they encounter spirits in heaven, engaging in dialogues that reveal the nature of their choices and the reasons they remain in hell. The book emphasizes that hell is a self-imposed state, and individuals choose to remain there due to their inability to let go of their earthly attachments and sins. Through these encounters, Lewis explores themes of redemption, the afterlife, and the importance of spiritual choices, underscoring that true joy and salvation are available to those who seek them sincerely.

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God's Homecoming

N.T. Wright

N.T. (Tom) Wright is Research Professor Emeritus of New Testament and Early Christianity at the University of St Andrews and Senior Research Fellow at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford. \Having written close to one hundred books, he is, undoubtedly, one of the most trusted and influential teachers of the Christian story in the 21st Century. In this conversation, he joins Belle and Justin to speak of 'God's Homecoming', arguably one of the most forgotten elements of the Christian worldview.

For 'God's Homecoming' https://spckpublishing.co.uk/when-god-comes-home

If you found this conversation interesting, Seen & Unseen, the creators of Re-Enchanting, offers thousands of articles exploring how the Christian faith helps us understand the modern world. Discover more here: www.seenandunseen.com

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