The Resurrection of the Son of God

Why did Christianity begin, and why did it take the shape it did? To answer
this question - which any historian must face - Wright focuses on the key
points: what precisely happened at Easter? What did the early Christians mean
when they said that Jesus of Nazareth had been raised from the dead? What can
be said today about this belief? This book sketches a map of ancient beliefs
about life after death, in both the Greco-Roman and Jewish worlds. It then
highlights the fact that the early Christians' belief about the afterlife
belonged firmly on the Jewish spectrum, while introducing several new mutations
and sharper definitions. This, together with other features of early
Christianity, forces the historian to read the Easter narratives in the
gospels, not simply as late rationalizations of early Christian spirituality,
but as accounts of two actual events: the empty tomb of Jesus and his
'appearances.' How do we explain these phenomena? The early Christians' answer
was that Jesus had indeed been bodily raised from the dead; that was why they
hailed him as the messianic 'son of God.' No modern historian has come up with
a more convincing explanation. Facing this question, we are confronted to this
day with the most central issues of the Christian worldview and theology.