About the Course

Many people have questions about what happens after we die and wonder if hope is simply about our ultimate future destination. It is a common assumption in Western Christianity that the primary message is about ‘going up to heaven to be with God’. What if there is so much more to Christian hope than something that is going to happen later that will take us away from this world to a ‘better place’? What if there is more to the Good News that Jesus proclaimed than just ‘life after death’?

This course addresses many questions people ask about ‘where we go’ after we die, including ideas about heaven, hell, and purgatory. Professor N.T. Wright explains why Jesus’ resurrection offers surprising answers by the God of hope who came to take charge of his world and dwell with his people in Jesus of Nazareth and through the Spirit. Over a series of 24 lectures you will learn how the Christian hope for life in God’s new creation should inspire and inform the mission of the church and individual followers of Jesus today.

In this course you will be encouraged to learn the reasons for our hope right here and right now. We invite you to explore these ideas and to be refreshed and renewed along the way, and perhaps, surprised by the God of hope.

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Who should take this course:

• Anyone interested in learning what is unique about ‘hope’ from a Christian perspective.
• Anyone who wants to study more about what happens after ‘life after death’ and Christian hope.
• Those who wish to explore the ways in which the church must be shaped for mission and for the God of hope.
• Clergy, Bible teachers, or theologians looking to study the implications of eschatology for Christian hope.

What you’ll learn:

• What it means for Christians to have hope: What are we hoping for? What can we do about that hope in the present time?
• The mission-shaped church being shaped by the arrival of God’s future hope in the present time.
• Resurrection and why the Christian hope is not about ‘going to heaven’ when we die.
• Heaven, Hell, Purgatory, and the Christian hope for ‘life after life after death’.
• How the church must be the bearer of a new heaven and new earth reality.

Registered 501c3 non-profit organization
Courses developed for N.T. Wright Online are made possible by the generous donations of people who support the Wisconsin Center for Christian Studies, Inc., a registered 501c3 non-profit organization. Tuition paid enables us to provide scholarships for those in need and allows us to fund new courses and translations of existing courses, and we are able to offer courses at significant discounts.