What an extraordinary study—at once scholarly and personal. Bryce rescues John 3:16 from its cultural reduction while honoring both its textual depth and lived resonance. This essay does so with grace and rigor, combining philological precision with a practical sense of what “God so loved the world” might mean amid our political and planetary disorder. The exploration of kosmos and zoe aionios reframes the verse not as an escape clause but as a call to re-creation.
This is theology with dirt under its nails—academic integrity joined to the wisdom of roadside tracts and real life. - Check out this Substack: "Political Devotions" - Bryce Tolpen
William, thank you so much. I felt bad after writing this essay because of how much we as a culture invest in a particular reading of John 3:16. But maybe my history as a zealot for that reading gives me a certain license to present other readings of the verse presented by the likes of Wright and Hart.
Well, it is a wonderful essay, whatever its history. - Now, you may enjoy Hart's take on Wright: https://churchlifejournal.nd.edu/articles/the-spiritual-was-more-substantial-than-the-material-for-the-ancients/ - I am enormously impressed with Hart, especially his strong views on universal salvation (and his translation of the New Testament is fascinating: unique in its willingness to keep the strange and sometimes confusing nature of the original Greek in an English form).
Thanks! That will be fascinating. I've read Hart on Wright only in passing. I've read Hart's book on universal salvation--super helpful. His New Testament translation is my favorite.
What an extraordinary study—at once scholarly and personal. Bryce rescues John 3:16 from its cultural reduction while honoring both its textual depth and lived resonance. This essay does so with grace and rigor, combining philological precision with a practical sense of what “God so loved the world” might mean amid our political and planetary disorder. The exploration of kosmos and zoe aionios reframes the verse not as an escape clause but as a call to re-creation.
This is theology with dirt under its nails—academic integrity joined to the wisdom of roadside tracts and real life. - Check out this Substack: "Political Devotions" - Bryce Tolpen
William, thank you so much. I felt bad after writing this essay because of how much we as a culture invest in a particular reading of John 3:16. But maybe my history as a zealot for that reading gives me a certain license to present other readings of the verse presented by the likes of Wright and Hart.
Well, it is a wonderful essay, whatever its history. - Now, you may enjoy Hart's take on Wright: https://churchlifejournal.nd.edu/articles/the-spiritual-was-more-substantial-than-the-material-for-the-ancients/ - I am enormously impressed with Hart, especially his strong views on universal salvation (and his translation of the New Testament is fascinating: unique in its willingness to keep the strange and sometimes confusing nature of the original Greek in an English form).
Thanks! That will be fascinating. I've read Hart on Wright only in passing. I've read Hart's book on universal salvation--super helpful. His New Testament translation is my favorite.