First of all, I love Stephen Colbert. It has become a nightly ritual for me and the missus to watch The Colbert Report in our zombie-like state before we haul ourselves up a flight of stairs to our bedroom.
Colbert with sharp wit portrays an ultra-conservative pundit. He has great guests as well. Tonight, NT Wright, the Bishop of Durham who served as the Canon Theologian of Westminster Abbey. He talked about his new book, “Surprised by Hope, Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church.” Colbert made this comment that Hillary Clinton was thinking along the same lines for her next book also… I was rolling. Yesterday I was delightfully surprised by Wright’s appearance. But the whole episode was one of the best Colbert reports ever.
Wright is one of the most important theologians of the 21st Century and he is funny. His new book really addresses having a truncated eschatology particularly in the Western church a theme we’ve been trying to wrestle through in my message series, “Heaven On Earth.” Most Christians have an inadequate and incomplete view of heaven, that it’s merely a future happening or simply what happens after you die. That deeply affects the way we live out the mission of the church as well. Wright’s response is that heaven is God’s “kingdom” that has already been inaugurated by Jesus and that the Church needs to live the resurrection now joining God in his re-creative work.
Links
Check out the full streaming episode here.
Episodes are available the day after they air.
Jake Bouma has posted the entire transcript of the interview on his well-designed site.
abcpastor 
Hey I posted a transcript of the interview on my website if you’re interested… and not lazy enough to WATCH it 😉 Cheers! http://www.jakebouma.com/2008/06/19/transcript-of-nt-wright-interview-on-the-colbert-report/
i love colbert. it seems like he’s christian too! apparently he teaches Sunday school. Did you see the awesome episode where he basically theologically trounced this dude philip zombardo? i found the clip here if you haven’t, it’s classic: http://www.nofactzone.net/?p=3212
so great to have you blogging again LT! Man we love colbert too…how do you do it with a kid? I can see how someone can do it in the mountain time zone…but he’s on so late here!
hilarious