I’m taking a week off from blogging, but our podcast is back today with a new episode.
If we consult the Holy Scriptures we can have no doubt that God promised his church here on earth a better state than this.
Philipp Jakob Spener (1675)
Given all the problems we discussed in our previous episode, why should Christians today join Pietists like Spener in holding out “hope for better times” — for the church, but also for the world?
This week Mark, Sam, and I discussed the nature of Christian hope (including its grounding in the Resurrection, its relationship to faith and love, and whether it’s this-worldly, other-worldly, or both) and why it’s distinct from secular hopes (including political expressions — on left and right — and the kind of self-exonerating historical progressivism that Ta-Nehisi Coates has criticized).
Further reading:
- Philipp Jakob Spener, “The Possibility of Better Conditions in the Church” (part II of Pia Desideria)
- Michelle Clifton-Soderstrom, “How Should We Hope?” (ch. 4 of Angels, Worms, and Bogeys)
- Jürgen Moltmann, Theology of Hope
- N.T. Wright, Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church
- Mark S. Ferrara, Barack Obama and the Rhetoric of Hope
- Chris Gehrz, “Truthful, Hopeful: A Christian Reflection on History” and “Expectation and Joy: A Benediction for Easter Monday,” The Pietist Schoolman
You can download this and all episodes of The Pietist Schoolman Podcast at iTunes.
Cross-posted at The Christian Humanist
The Pietist Schoolman 
Hello again!
I appreciated your conversation on hope. It’s one of my favorite words but also one of the most difficult to define. Although I know you’re using the term “instinct” in other areas, it seems especially fitting to me when it comes to hope, as circumstances frankly do not give much reason for it sometimes.
I also enjoyed the idea of viewing hope more communally as you guys discussed a bit. It makes sense to me because whenever I feel a strong sense of hope, it is due to a strong presence of love. I would say that love can be seen best when in community (big or small), and those acts of love within a community (specifically when I am simply a bystander) are some of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. They give credence to my belief in the reality of love, and if love is real, then it would seem that our instinct to hope has solid grounds.