N. T. Wright is one of those unique scholars who can translate their ideas for the general public. Simply Jesus is a great example of this. If you’re not up to reading his more lengthy works Jesus and the Victory of God and The Resurrection of the Son of God, you can get a general understanding of his perspective on Jesus with Simply Jesus.

The question that lies at the heart of this book is, “Why did the Messiah have to die?” Wright uses his encyclopedic understanding of first century Judaism and Roman culture to answer this as simply as possible. I won’t give away his answer, but he compellingly uses the metaphor of ‘perfect storm’ to explain just what happened a couple millennia ago in ancient Palestine.

Simply Jesus would make an excellent small group study or even a gift for someone disillusioned by the too-easy answers of popular Christianity.

Wright, N. T. Simply Jesus: A New Vision of Who He Was, What He Did, and Why He Matters. Harper Collins, 2011.