Christopher John Hugh Wright (born 1947) is a

missiologist Missiology is the academic study of the Christian mission history and methodology. It began to be developed as an academic discipline in the 19th century. Definition Broadly speaking, missiology is "an interdisciplinary field of inquiry into Ch ...

, an

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

clergyman and an

Old Testament The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Isr ...

scholar. He is currently the International Ministries Director of Langham Partnership International. He was the principal of

All Nations Christian College All Nations Christian College is an English missions college, located on the Easneye estate near Ware, Hertfordshire, and validated by the Open University. Aims Unlike some Bible colleges, the focus of All Nations Christian College is pri ...

. He is an honorary member of

All Souls Church, Langham Place All Souls Church is a conservative evangelical Anglican church in central London, situated in Langham Place in Marylebone, at the north end of Regent Street. It was designed in Regency style by John Nash and consecrated in 1824. As the church ...

in London, UK.

Life

Childhood and education

Wright was born in

Belfast Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

, in 1947. His parents were missionaries in Brazil, though Chris as the youngest son was born after they came back at the end of the Second World War. He grew up in Belfast and was nurtured as an Irish Presbyterian. He studied classics at St. Catharine's College, Cambridge in the late 1960s, and then started his career as a high-school teacher in Grosvenor High School, Belfast. As a student, he was active in the CICCU. In the 1970s he studied for his PhD at

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

in Cambridge, England, in the field of Theology, specialising in Old Testament

economic ethics Economic ethics is the combination of economics and ethics, incorporating both disciplines to predict, analyze, and model economic phenomena. It can be summarized as the theoretical ethical prerequisites and foundations of economic systems. Thi ...

; his book from this work was published as ''God's People in God's Land'' (Eerdmans and Paternoster).

Early professional experience

Wright was ordained in the Anglican Church of England in 1977 and served as an assistant pastor in the Parish Church of St. Peter & St. Paul,

Tonbridge Tonbridge ( ) (historic spelling ''Tunbridge'') is a market town in Kent, England, on the River Medway, north of Royal Tunbridge Wells, south west of Maidstone and south east of London. In the administrative borough of Tonbridge and Mall ...

, Kent, England.

Foreign mission service

In 1983 Wright moved to India with his wife, Liz, and four children to teach at

Union Biblical Seminary Union Biblical Seminary (UBS) is a theological seminary founded by Wesleyan and Methodist denominations in Pune, India. UBS started as a Marathi-medium Bible School opened by the Free Methodist Church and was finally established in 1953 and i ...

(UBS) in

Pune Pune ( ; , ISO 15919, ISO: ), previously spelled in English as Poona (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1978), is a city in the state of Maharashtra in the Deccan Plateau, Deccan plateau in Western ...

for five years. At this time he and Liz were mission partners with

Crosslinks Crosslinks is an evangelical Anglican missionary society, drawing its support mainly from parishes in the Church of England and Church of Ireland. It was known as the Bible Churchmen's Missionary Society (BCMS) until 1992. The BCMS was created as ...

, an evangelical Anglican mission agency. While at UBS he taught a variety of Old Testament courses at B.D. and M.Th. levels.

All Nations Christian College

In 1988 Wright returned to the UK as academic dean at

, an international training centre for

cross-cultural Cross-cultural may refer to: *cross-cultural studies, a comparative tendency in various fields of cultural analysis *cross-cultural communication, a field of study that looks at how people from differing culture, cultural backgrounds communicate * ...

mission. He was appointed principal there in September 1993 and held that post for eight years.

Current role

In September 2001 Wright was appointed to his present role as the International Ministries Director of the Langham Partnership International (LPI). Wright and his wife belong to

, where he enjoys preaching from time to time as a member of the ministry team. This is also the church where LPI's founder,

John Stott John Robert Walmsley Stott (27 April 1921 – 27 July 2011) was a British Anglican pastor and theologian who was noted as a leader of the worldwide evangelical movement. He was one of the principal authors of the Lausanne Covenant in 1974. I ...

, was rector emeritus.

Personal life

Wright enjoys running, birding and watching rugby football. He has a passion to bring to life the relevance of the Old Testament to Christian mission and ethics. He has written several books mostly on that area. He loves preaching and teaching the Bible, which he does now mostly through the Langham Preaching seminars in different parts of the world. When not travelling around the world for this ministry, and giving international leadership to LPI, Chris gives about three months of each year to his continuing writing projects. Wright and his wife Liz live in London and have four adult children and 11 grandchildren. He is of no relation to

N.T. Wright Nicholas Thomas Wright (born 1 December 1948), known as N. T. Wright or Tom Wright, is an English New Testament scholar, Paul the Apostle, Pauline theologian and Anglican bishop. He was the bishop of Durham and Lord Spiritual in the UK Pa ...

.C.J.H. Wright,
Reading The Whole Bible For Mission: What Happens When We Do?
', 7:10-7:30

Written works

* ''User's Guide to the Bible'' (Lion Manuals), Chariot Victor, 1984 * ''God's People in God's Land: Family, Land and Property in the Old Testament''. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans; Exeter, UK: Paternoster, 1990 * ''Knowing Jesus through the Old Testament'', Harpercollins, 1990 * ''Tested by Fire. Daniel 1-6: Solid Faith in today’s world'', Scripture Union, 1993 * ''Walking in the Ways of the Lord: The Ethical Authority of the Old Testament'', Intervarsity Press, 1995 * ''Deuteronomy'' (New International Biblical Commentary), Hendrickson, 1996 * ''The Uniqueness of Jesus''. Thinking Clearly Series. Mill Hill, London and Grand Rapids: Monarch. Reprint 2001.
Available in the United States through Kregel Publications, P.O. Box 2607, Grand Rapids, MI 49501), 1997 * ''Ambassadors to the World (Declaring God’s Love)'' Intervarsity Press, 1998 * ''The Message of Ezekiel'' (The Bible Speaks Today), Intervarsity Press, 2001 * ''Old Testament Ethics for the People of God''. Leicester, England, and Downers Grove, Ill.: Inter-Varsity Press.
Revised, updated and expanded version of ''Living as the People of God'' and ''An Eye for an Eye'', 2004 * ''The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible's Grand Narrative'', IVP Academic, 2006 * ''Life Through God's Word: Psalm 119'', Milton Keynes, Authentic and Keswick Ministries, 2006 * ''Knowing the Holy Spirit through the Old Testament'', Oxford: Monarch Press; Downers Grove: IVP, 2006 * ''Knowing God the Father Through the Old Testament'', IVP Academic, 2007 * ''Salvation Belongs to Our God: Celebrating the Bible's Central Story'', Global Christian Library, Nottingham: IVP;
Christian Doctrine in Global Perspective, Downers Grove: IVP, 2008 * ''The God I Don't Understand: Reflections on Tough Questions of Faith'', Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2009 * ''The Mission of God's People'' (Biblical Theology for Life), Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010 * ''Sweeter than Honey'', Langham Preaching Resources, 2015 * ''Becoming like Jesus'', Langham Preaching Resources, 2016 * ''How to Preach and Teach the Old Testament for All Its Worth'', Zondervan Academic, 2016 * ''Let the Gospels Preach the Gospel'', Langham Preaching Resources, 2017

References

External links

Christopher JH Wright

Langham Partnership International

All Souls Church
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wright, Christopher J. H. 1947 births Living people 20th-century Anglican theologians 20th-century British male writers 20th-century British non-fiction writers 20th-century Christian biblical scholars 20th-century Church of England clergy 20th-century evangelicals 21st-century Anglican theologians 21st-century British male writers 21st-century British non-fiction writers 21st-century Christian biblical scholars 21st-century Church of England clergy 21st-century evangelicals Anglican writers Bible commentators British Anglican theologians British biblical scholars British evangelicals British male non-fiction writers British religious writers Christian clergy from Belfast Evangelical Anglican biblical scholars Evangelical Anglican clergy Old Testament scholars