Our Dwelling Place, Together with God
A Feature Review of
God’s Homecoming: The Forgotten Promise of Future Renewal
N.T. Wright
Hardcover: HarperOne Publishing, 2026
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Reviewed by Lauren Mulford
N.T. Wright has written 14 chapters on what he believes is a misunderstanding of the Biblical drama. While most Christians believe that their souls will go to heaven when they die, Wright argues that this is nowhere in the Bible. How can a prominent Christian theologian believe that not only will he not go to heaven when he dies, but that no Christian goes to heaven when she dies?
In Wright’s plucky style of interrupting his own sentences, he engages his reader to inspect the biblical narrative with him. From the beginning of the Eden story all the way to John’s Revelation, Wright recalls the story of the Bible, highlighting the ongoing theme of God coming to dwell with his people. If you read Wright’s Surprised by Hope you will find similar themes, but this sequel moves from resurrection to God’s purpose in resurrection–to dwell with his people.
Wright comically reminisces about a newspaper headline stating “New Bishop Abolishes Heaven and the Soul” (7). While this is factually accurate, the clickbaity title sounds like he has abandoned the Bible for some New Age enlightenment theology; however, Wright is actually going back to Bible basics.
What is translated as “soul” from the Hebrew and Greek is not what we understand a soul to be. Wright describes the origins of “soul” as being extra-biblical. Immediately some of us may ask about Hebrews 4:12’s mention of “soul and spirit” and other biblical verses with “soul”. Wright explains that the Hebrew and Greek words have better translations, or at least better understandings, than a disembodied ghost. The book gives a brief history of the concept of soul and its development.
As for heaven, it is not abolished altogether, but Wright established that it is not the goal of Christian life. Just as the name Immanuel implies, God desires to be with us. God comes to us. God wants to recreate the earth and us so that he can come and dwell with us here in the new earth, not in heaven.
Naturally, the question then becomes, “Where do we go when we die?” Wright admits to not understanding what happens immediately upon death. But he beautifully explains that it is peaceful and not punitive, and this state is temporary as we await a future resurrection, as we state in the Nicene Creed: “We look forward to the resurrection of the dead, and to life in the world to come.”
This book will be very helpful for every pastor wishing to clarify her or his position from the Bible concerning the cohesive “Imago Dei” as an embodied person. We are not “souls trapped in bodies” but rather bodies with spirits. Our goal isn’t to be freed from our bodies but rather to one day be resurrected into the glory of the Lord on earth. Pastors may also want their congregants to read this book to better understand that we colloquially refer to “going to heaven when we die” but that often will cause confusion and obfuscate the truth of our professed hope in the resurrection. Christ is the first among many, not singularly the only one resurrected.
This book is not a complete tome on resurrection, heaven, soul, purgatory, and life after death. It will simply whet your appetite and begin to clarify that the goal of Christianity is not heaven, but rather life with God. This book will be enough for most readers and help them form intelligent questions and have intelligent conversations concerning what Christ promised and what is nowhere mentioned in the Bible. For more advanced readers, you will be left wanting more. I felt the book was simply not long enough, although it is just over 300 pages. This would make a fantastic book club choice for your more advanced Sunday School or other engaged group.
Lauren Mulford
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