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by Nicholas Thomas Wright
Westminster John Knox Press. © 1999, Nicholas Thomas Wright. 111 pages
(paper).
Wright begins by demolishing the popular notion that the date January
1, 2000 (or 2001, for that matter) is somehow intrinsically significant.
He bases his argument on the origin of our current calendar, which is a slight
modification of the one proposed by a Scythian monk named Dionysius
Exiguus in the 6th Century A.D. Dionysius designed his calendar
to date all later events from the conception of Christ, which he calculated
to have taken place on March 25, A.D. 1 (nine months prior to
December 25, the traditional date of Christ's birth). However, we now have
reason to believe that his calculations were off by several years and that
the third Millennium began totally uneventfully in 1997. Moreover, there
is no convincing biblical or theological reason to assume that the passage
of 2,000 years is in any way significant. Finally, Wright asserts that it
is not so much Christ's conception or birth as his resurrection from death
(probably in A.D. 30) that was and is truly meaningful--hence,
even assuming that we attach special meaning to the passage of 2,000 years,
the new Millennium won't "really" begin until sometime in the year 2030.
Far from being fraught with millennial meaning, the dates January 1,
2000 and 2001 are arbitrary.
But although these "magic" dates are meaningless, the concept of the
Millennium itself need not be. Indeed, Wright sees in it the potential for
deep, even world-changing significance. In surprisingly few pages, he outlines
the development of Christianity and Western culture from antiquity to our
present "postmodern" world. According to Wright's analysis, modernity led
to the decline of religion and ethics; postmodernity then deconstructed
modernity's myths as nothing but a series of "power trips" but offered the
world nothing positive in return. Thus cut loose from our ethical moorings
and deprived of old certainties, we are cynical, egocentric, and suspicious
of all agendas, and we have arrived at our Millennium unable to make sense
of it. Up to this point, the reader might almost be tempted to lump the author
together with fundamentalist prophets of doom. Remarkably, however, Wright's
next step is not to proclaim the world's imminent destruction at the hands
of a wrathful God but instead to hold out hope of restoration. Wright finds
that hope for our postmodern world in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, whose
selfless love is by definition no power trip and is thus immune to
deconstruction.
Also remarkable is another conclusion Wright draws from Dionysius's
revision of the calendar: Any Millennial celebrations we engage in ought
to be overtly and specifically Christian. Though the monk's calculations
were incorrect, his intentions--to overturn the self-aggrandizing calendar
instituted by the tyrannical Roman Emperor Diocletian and replace it with
one that proclaims that "Jesus is Lord, and Caesar isn't" (p. 6)--could not
have been more appropriate. Wright's logic here is unassailable: Without
Jesus and the calendar that honors him, there would be no marking of the
Millennium; hence, if we celebrate the Millennium at all, we should do so
in Jesus' name. In this age of political correctness, it is mildly shocking
to hear someone dare to argue for an increased Christianization of public
life. Shocking, perhaps, but also refreshing and invigorating.
Most remarkable of all is the fact that Wright steadfastly rejects what
he terms apocalypticism (the literal interpretation of the Bible's
eschatalogical prophecies) in favor of a figurative, poetic interpretation
of apocalyptic language, yet does so without explaning Christian eschatalogy
away as mere fiction. Although many people today seem to think that the term
apocalypse is synonymous with "destruction," Wright reminds
us of the original meaning: "revelation" or "disclosure." Thus, apocalyptic
events are those that reveal God to the world. Only cosmic, figurative language
can properly capture the true significance of such relevatory
events--whether they be the mighty acts of God recounted in the Bible or
our own actions when we allow the Spirit of Christ to guide and empower us.
God's will for the world is not destruction but healing and restoration under
the loving rule of his Son.
Having laid out his arguments for the true significance of the
Millennium, Wright proceeds to address the question of how we might celebrate
it properly in the spirit of the Gospels. His answer is
Jubilee 2000,
an international movement to cancel the crushing burden of debt that keeps
the population of the "two-thirds world" virtually enslaved to the wealthy
lender nations. Jubilee 2000 has the support of a number of Christian
denominations, including my own, the
Evangelical Lutheran Church
in America. Wright makes a compelling case for this remission of debt
as a way of living out the lordship of Christ rather than the lordship of
"Caesar."
The Millennium Myth is not without its problems and
difficulties. I was distressed to note that Wright strongly implies belief
in special creation over evolution. Why a scholar otherwise so open
to figurative readings of the Bible must insist on a literal reading of the
early chapters of Genesis is beyond me, and I fear that Wright's adherence
to Creationism may cause thinking people to dismiss him as a fundamentalist
and to reject his ideas out of hand. Also, on several occasions Wright casts
pluralism in an unflattering light because it contributes to a politically
correct climate that makes the expression and application of specifically
Christian ideals more difficult. Though I am certain that Wright does not
intend his statements to justify intolerance directed at
non-Christians, I fear that those statements could be willfully misconstrued
to support just that. People of good will may also be put off by Wright's
insistence that the lordship of Christ necessarily invalidates the claims
of other religions, and others may find his analysis of modernity and
postmodernity one-sided or simplistic. But whatever its real or perceived
faults, The Millennium Myth is an important and courageous book
that deserves to reach a wide audience. In a society that has grown increasingly
cynical and pessimistic, it is refreshing to encounter an author who takes
seriously the earliest creed of the Christian Church--"Jesus is Lord"--and
finds in it both a message of hope and a practical plan of action to make
our world a better place.
Edited February 12, 2000
Copyright ©2000 by Steven R. Solomon. All rights reserved.
IN 1999, AMID THE WELTER of volumes warning of the Y2K bug, food
and water shortages, and the imminent rise of the Antichrist, another sort
of book about the Millennium was published, one that did not lose its relevance
on January 1, 2000: N. T. Wright's The Millennium Myth: Hope for a Postmodern
World. In this concise, readable, and learned volume, Wright, Dean
of Lichfield Cathedral and Canon Theologian of Coventry Cathedral, sorts
out the current popular Millennial muddle in order to offer hope to a society
he feels has lost its way. And amazingly, he manages to do so in a manner
that is Christian and Bible-based without resorting to apocalyptic scare
tactics.
Please send comments to
srsgm@pacbell.net.