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Wheaton Theology Conference - Wright and Bockmuehl Explained

This is a follow up on my earlier post summarizing Bockmuehl's talk. I won't attempt to cover all of the ground they covered in their exchanges, some of it dealt with rather technical exegetical issues. Wright did feel that Bockmuehl didn't accurately capture his eschatology. Wright disputes that he implied that the final state is earthly only. Earth and heaven are fused at the end. He also seemed to push back on the issue of whether or not we go to heaven after we die. He doesn't like the language 'heaven' because of the baggage it brings, but he does affirm that we go to an intermediate state where we are with Christ.

Bockmuehl responded by saying that he was somewhat exaggerating Wright's position to prove a point, it was a rhetorical move and it wasn't completely without grounding in some things that Wright had said (he mentioned a Time Magazine interview).
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  1. dannyApril 17, 2010 at 6:39 PM

    In Bockmuehl's defense, Wright says things that could be taken either way (regarding the intermediate state, that is), though I've heard him say explicitly we are with Christ.

    For what it's worth, here is the link for the audio/video. They don't have Bockmuehl on there as a presenter at the conference (at least not right now). I wonder if that'll be changed.

    http://www.wheaton.edu/wetn/lectures-theology10.htm

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  2. Marcus MaherApril 17, 2010 at 6:42 PM

    The omission of Bockmuehl's talk is interesting. I am sure that it will soon be corrected. Even though I do think he pushed Wright into places he's not comfortable, there were some excellent elements to his talk (which is no surprise).

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