Surprised By Hope by N.T. Wright packs a considerable punch and really should be a must-read for anyone who really wonders exactly how Jesus wanted us to live our lives after His death and resurrection.

N.T. spends the majority of the book building his case for what he believes and then, in the last few chapters pulls it all together and really hits you between the eyes with what he believes. It would not be an all bad idea to read the last few chapters first so you know what he is building to and then go back to the start of the book in order to read his support material.

In the end, he supports his idea that, as Christians, we're not to just be waiting around for the "second coming". He shows how Jesus' death and resurrection was not just some magical gimmick to draw attention but instead really was the ushering in of God's Kingdom, a new way of working through His people, and that it represented not the eventual resurrection of our own earthly bodies but instead our ability to live a resurrected life at the time of our baptism or public acceptance of Christ.

Again, start at the back of the book if you wish because doing so will bring greater depth and meaning to this book as you wade through the first many chapters which can seem pretty tedious (at least for someone of my low brain to body mass ratio) but do give this book a try. But being willing to shake apart your notions of how we really are to live in this world and also of exactly what this thing called "heaven" is all about.