The Resurrection of the Son of God

It took months, but I finally finished reading through N. T. Wright's seminal The Resurrection of the Son of God, in which he defends the historical interrogation of the events of Easter Morning and surveys the pagan, Jewish, and Christian understandings of resurrection and the afterlife.

It's well-written, although it assumes a fair amount from the reader:  it is a more academic work than popular.  Wright interacts with a number of resurrection skeptics and supporters.  While my own convictions in the matter are firmly settled (Jesus really did rise physically from the dead; there is no other suitable explanation for Christianity), Wright addresses the literature in pretty convincing fashion.

He advances his case in the following fashion:

1. Arguing that the resurrection may be interrogated by historians (i.e., that metaphysical naturalism isn't a precondition to studying historical events).
2. Examining the notion of death and resurrection in the pagan context (he concludes that the word used for resurrection always implies bodily resurrection—a physical resurrection).
3. Examining various Jewish notions of death and resurrection (outlining the differences between the Pharisees and Saducees).
4. Looking at the concept of resurrection in Paul, whose work is agreed to be the earliest in the NT.
5. Looking at the concept of resurrection in the rest of the NT (the other letters first, then the gospels individually).
6. Briefly considering various other explanations of the growth of Christianity.
7. Finally, concluding that the physical, bodily resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth from the dead is the best historical explanation of the Christian church.

It's a lengthy book—738 pages of heavily footnoted text, not including the bibliography and index.  It's a worthwhile read if you have the time, and I honestly think it completely devastates the alternative positions.

There is a gripping corporeality to Christianity that's so compelling.  It begins with the physicality of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead and concludes with an eternity in a physical (Wright would say transphysical) heaven, not a gnostic fantasy of spirituality.  It's so good to be a Christian.