Daniel,

Re-create reality? I guess I agree with that, but I’m not sure I know what you mean. Would creating a system that gives everyone health care be “re-creating reality”? If so, then I agree that is very much possible. If you are talking about physically changing the atomic structure of the universe into some kind of “other-worldly” state of existence where people live forever and angels float around either as ghosts or super-human beings, then I completely disagree.

What do you mean by re-create reality? This is where NT Wright always falls down for me. He never provides a good description. He stops at the metaphorical level, and rejects those who might try to articulate what that metaphor might look like if it becomes reality.

I agree with McLaren that “…signs and wonders’ cannot be understood within a naturalistic worldview”. But what I mean by that (I won’t speak for Brian) is that we shouldn’t try to come up with a natural explanation of how those miracles physically happend. We should not try to create a naturalistic explanation like “these people had epilepsy and the miracle was a natural healing” or “these people had mental problems and Jesus helped them heal themselves by giving them hope”. Using those natural explanations was the mistake of modern liberalism. It doesn’t work because it doesn’t do the story justice. WE now have another option of how to see the stories as “true myth”.

Instead, we should realize the narrative isn’t a historical retelling. It is a mythical story. In the world of myth, miracles happen all the time. They don’t need an explanation. Within a mythical narrative, they tell us all kinds of things as symbols for what the overall message of Jesus is about. For example, the myth that Jesus cast out demons was a symbol for his purpose of opposing the evil investation of pagans in Israel. That may not be what Brian means but I can’t speak for him.

The “what is God” question is bigger than this conversation so I won’t go into it here, but we can discuss that elsewhere.