Hope in a Troubled World

Starting this Sunday, I’ll be teaching a six-week course titled “Hope in a Troubled World” at 9:00 a.m. at my home church, Cornerstone Christian Church.  Here’s the info:

Hope in a Troubled World

Summary

We live in a world that seems to be falling apart.  The rise of terrorism, the earthquake in Haiti, poverty, AIDS, corruption, war, the breakup of families, lingering illness, the loss of a loved one – these and many other tragic circumstances can cause us to wonder how we can dare hope for something better.

Yet the scriptures tell us that “faith, hope and love” are the basic virtues that characterize life in Christ (1. Cor. 13:13).  What is Christian hope, and how does it connect to the other cardinal virtues of faith and love?

This study will reflect both a theological and spiritual exploration of the theme of hope.  We’ll dig into the theme of “hope” in the scriptures and in the great statements of Christian faith from past ages in order to establish a theological perspective on hope.  We’ll also engage with Christian writers, poets, philosophers and others who will help direct our spiritual perspectives towards enjoying and living out the hope we have in Christ.

Text

Our primary text will be the Bible.

We’ll also explore portions of the following books (these are not required reading, but you may find it edifying to read one or more of these):  NT Wright, Surprised by Hope:  Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church (Harper One 2008); Richard Bauckham and Trevor Hart, Hope Against Hope:  Christian Eschatology at the Turn of the Millennium (Eerdmans 1999); Jurgen Moltmann, Theology of Hope (Fortress Press 1993); Blaise Pascal, Pensees (various editions); Augustine, City of God (various editions), Confessions (various editions); C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain (various editions), A Grief Observed (various editions), The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (various editions), The Last Battle (various editions); Hans Boersma, Violence, Hospitality, and the Cross:  Reappropriating the Atonement Tradition (Baker Academic 2006); Belden Lane, The Solace of Fierce Landscapes:  Exploring Desert and Mountain Spirituality (Oxford Univ. Press 1998); Miroslav Volf, Free of Charge:  Giving and Forgiving in a Culture Stripped of Grace (Zondervan 2006).

Schedule

Week 1:  The Hope of the World.  What does scripture say about the human condition?  What does it mean to be separated from God? What is the story of God’s pursuit of relationship with us?  We’ll set the stage for our conversations by framing the Bible’s grand narrative of creation, fall, and the hope of redemption.

Week 2:  Hope and the Cross.  How did the cross, a symbol of shame, become a symbol of hope?  We’ll discuss how various theories of the “atonement” – satisfaction, Christus Victor, and moral example — complement each other and offer hope against the power of sin. 

Week 3:  Hope in Loss.  Can we find hope in the losses of life?  We’ll discuss Biblical themes and images of comfort, solace, trial, testing, and perseverance in the face of suffering.   We’ll also examine how God participated in our suffering and loss through the incarnation of Christ.

Week 4:  Hopeful Desire.  What is your greatest hope?  What does it mean to love God with “all your heart, all strength, all your soul, and all your mind” (Luke 10:27)?  The Bible and the Christian tradition have much to say about the ordering of our desires, the true meaning of hope, and the link between hope, faith, and love.

Week 5:  Abiding Hope.  Where does hope reside?  The Bible uses the metaphors of “abiding” in Christ and of Christ being the “vine” in which our lives should be rooted.  These pictures teach us about hope in seasons of growing as well as seasons of waiting. 

Week 6:  Hope in the End.  The line between hope and despair intersects the present at the point of our beliefs about the future.  What will the future bring?  Will hope be left behind?  We’ll conclude our study by examining “eschatology” – the “last things.”  We will see that although the Biblical imagery of judgment is dark, the final word in scripture is one of hope:  that God will put an end to the ravages of sin so that the desire of all creation for peace can be realized.