The Fabric of Hope: An Essay (Emory University Studies in Law and Religion)

Rating:
Summary: Eschatologically provocative
Review: Tinder's book is a thought-provoking foray into what the prospect of a thoroughly Christian hope (centered in the breaking in of God's kingdom) does for the individual, community, and political arena. He culls resources from thinkers such as Plato, Kierkegaard, Hegel, and Marx, examining how their perspectives mesh or conflict with human hope for a destiny that finally comes to end history. He takes up the spiritual discipline of suffering as a means of focusing not on the penultimate, but upon the ultimate. He examines what situational obedience has to do with recognition of human finitude within history. All of these ideas, while important on a grand scale, will cause the serious reader to reflect on his or her own despondency--do we know what real hope is?