Nicholas Thomas Wright was born in Morpeth, Northumberland in 1948 and was raised in the context of middle Anglicanism. From before the age of seven or eight he already felt called to go into Christian ministry. Educated at Sedbergh School, then in Yorkshire, he specialized in Classics. As an undergraduate he studied Classics at Exeter College, Oxford. During that period he heard John Wenham give a talk on the need for Christians committed to the authority of Scripture in the world of theological scholarship. Prior to this point Tom Wright had been heading in the direction of parish ministry. After listening to Wenham’s talk, he knew that God wanted him to be an academic.
After graduating, he went on to train for the ministry at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford. It was around this time that he married his wife Maggie. In 1973 he gained a first class honours degree in Theology and in 1975, an M.A. and was ordained as a deacon. In 1976 he was ordained as a priest.
From 1975 to 1978 Tom Wright was a Junior Research Fellow and College Tutor in Theology in Merton College, Oxford, later becoming Junior Chaplain and Acting Lecturer in Theology. From 1978 to 1981 he was a Fellow and Chaplain at Downing College, Cambridge and College Tutor in Theology. In 1981 received his doctoral degree for his thesis, entitled ‘The Messiah and the People of God: A Study in Pauline Theology with Particular Reference to the Argument of the Epistle to the Romans’, his thesis supervisor being Professor G.B. Caird.
In 1981, after he finished his doctorate, Tom Wright went to Canada to teach NT at McGill. He was also involved in the Anglican College in Montreal.
In 1986 he returned to Oxford, where he was a Lecturer in NT Studies and a Fellow, Tutor and Chaplain of Worcester College. He remained in this position until 1993.
In 1994 he became Dean of Lichfield, a position which he held until 1999.
From 2000 to 2003, he was the Canon Theologian of Westminster
In July 2003 Tom Wright was consecrated Bishop of Durham, one of the highest positions in the Church of England. Bishop Tom continues to write voluminously and give many visiting lectures. He is a member of the Society for New Testament Studies, the Society of Biblical Literature, the Institute for Biblical Research, the Tyndale Fellowship for Biblical Research, and the Anglican Association of Biblical Scholars. He has often appeared in the media and has devised and presented a number of radio and television programs for the BBC and been consulted for many others. As Bishop of Durham, he is a member of the House of Lords and has spoken in the House on the subject of moral climate change and freedom of speech.
Recent Publications
Books
- 2007 Surprised by Hope (provisional title). London: SPCK; Minneapolis: Fortress (forthcoming)
- 2007 Acts for Everyone. London: SPCK; Louisville: Westminster John Knox (forthcoming)
- 2006 Judas and the Gospel of Jesus. London: SPCK; Grand Rapids: Baker
- 2006 Evil and the Justice of God. London: SPCK; Downers Grove, Ill: InterVarsity Press
- 2006 Simply Christian. London: SPCK; San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco
- 2006 The Resurrection of Jesus: John Dominic Crossan and N. T. Wright in Dialogue, ed. Robert B. Stewart. Minneapolis: Fortress
- 2005 The Scriptures, the Cross, and the Power of God. London: SPCK; Louisville: Westminster John Knox
- 2005 Paul: Fresh Perspectives. London: SPCK; Minneapolis: Fortress (US title: Paul in Fresh Perspective)
- 2005 Scripture and the Authority of God. London: SPCK; San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco (US title: The Last Word: Beyond the Bible Wars to a New Understanding of the Authority of Scripture)
- 2005 Dictionary for Theological Interpretation of Scripture (ed., with K. Vanhoozer et al.). Grand Rapids and London: Baker and SPCK
- 2004 Paul for Everyone: Romans. 2 vols. London: SPCK; Louisville: Westminster John Knox (CBC Reference Book of the Year 2005)
- 2003 For All the Saints? Remembering the Christian Departed. London: SPCK; Harrisburg, PA: Morehouse
- 2003 Hebrews for Everyone. London: London: SPCK; Louisville: Westminster John Knox
- 2003 Paul for Everyone: The Pastoral Letters. London: SPCK; Louisville: Westminster John Knox
- 2003 Quiet Moments. Oxford: Lion (selected highlights from A Moment of Quiet etc., 1997)
- 2003 The Resurrection of the Son of God. Volume III of Christian Origins and the Question of God. London: SPCK; Minneapolis: Fortress. (Association of Theological Booksellers ‘Religious Book of the Year’ and ‘Book of the Year’ 2003; Michael Ramsey Prize 2005)
- 2003 Paul for Everyone: 1 Corinthians. London: SPCK; Louisville: Westminster John Knox (CBC Reference Book of the Year 2004)
- 2003 Paul for Everyone: 2 Corinthians. London: SPCK; Louisville: Westminster John Knox
Articles
- 2006 ‘Decoding Da Vinci: The Challenge of Historic Christianity to Conspiracy and Fantasy’, Grove Biblical Studies B39 (Grove Books, Cambridge)
- 2006 ‘4QMMT and Paul: Justification, “Works,” and Eschatology’, in History and Exegesis: New Testament Essays in Honor of Dr E. Earle Ellis for His 80th Birthday, ed. Aang-Won (Aaron) Son (New York and London: T & T Clark), 104–132
- 2006 ‘New Perspectives on Paul’, ch. 11 in collected papers from Rutherford House Conference 2003, ed. Bruce McCormack (forthcoming) (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic)
- 2005 ‘Witness and Wisdom,’ [on Robert Browning and the tasks facing a modern Christian university], in Studies in Browning and His Circle (Baylor University) 26.2, September 2005, 124–34
- 2005 ‘Doubts about Doubt: Honest to God Forty Years On’, in Journal of Anglican Studies 3 (2), 181–96
- 2005 ‘Resurrecting Old Arguments: Responding to Four Essays’, in Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus 3.2, 187–209
- 2004 ‘God and Caesar, Then and Now’, in The Character of Wisdom: Essays in Honour of Wesley Carr, ed. Martyn Percy and Stephen Lowe (London: Ashgate), 157–71
- 2004 ‘Redemption from the New Perspective’, in Redemption, ed. S. T. Davis, D. Kendall, G. O’Collins (Oxford: OUP), 69–100
