When I read the above Essay from N. Thomas Wright I feel the excitement that use to run through my body in days gone by. I ask myself though, whether this is a literary thing, something like the excitement we can feel when reading a good thriller or some other inspiring book. God chooses to show himself through the man Jesus, and Jesus allows himself to be the instrument of redemption by doing those things that only God can do - it sounds good, and Wright does know how to present his point, and his arguments are logical. The only thing that is disturbing is that we are presented with a storyline which doesn’t get continued into the present, except as the story.
The churches, in their very variety and inability to accept other points of view, do not present the picture that we have when Wright speaks about the Jesus movement of the Gospels and Acts. Rather, we have the churches of Paul, arguing and suing, cussing and swearing, ecstatically speaking in tongues and being declared crazy, persecuted as subversive heretics and atheists, waiting for the end of the world.
When I read Wright, or hear him speak, I do have the feeling that it is a literary thing, because it is only then that it has the harmony and the ring of truth that the OT yearns for. Only then can the brutal death of Christ on the cross become the romantic idea of one dying for all and saving humanity.
You can find the essay and other writing here: ntwrightpage.com
I must say, I enjoy reading and hearing from the man, but in the end I am looking around, trying to locate what he was talking about in the real world.