Reasons to Hope

Description

Werner G. Jeanrond approaches hope from the perspective of a theology of love. He distinguishes human hopes from hope as God's gift to humanity and discusses the challenges of a Christian praxis of hope in today’s world. Remembering plays a crucial role for acts of hope, as does the insight into the transcendent nature of hope: nobody can hope for herself or himself alone. Hope thus invites personal communal, political and global participation and gives rise to a powerful constellation of symbols, including heaven, hell, and purgatory, that call for interpretation. Reasons to Hopecontributes to the multi-religious conversation on hope, death, and the human future in our universe. Title Page Copyright Page Contents Preface Notes for The Reader Acknowledgements Chapter 1: Hope, hopes and radical hope ‘Hope dies last’ The relational nature of hope Optimism and hope The ambiguity of hope Human hopes and Christian hope The relationship among hope, love and faith Hopes, hope and radical hope The complexity of hope Chapter 2: Hoping for salvation Biblical horizons of hope Hope in the Early Church Augustine’s hope for salvation Thomas Aquinas on hope From Thomas Aquinas to Jürgen Moltmann Jürgen Moltmann’s Theology of Hope Chapter 3: Salvation and reconciliation Desiring to be saved Salvation or reconciliation? Time and eternity The eschatological potential of love Divine creation and transformation Love, hope and the work of Christ Chapter 4: Individual and community: Three eschatological programmes Individual or communal future with God? Joseph Ratzinger’s/Pope Benedict XVI’s eschatology Robert W. Jenson’s eschatology Anthony Kelly’s eschatology Subject and community in eschatological perspective Chapter 5: Memory and hope The wounded memorial The current crisis of trust The ambiguous potential of memory The subversive power of remembering Memory and hope Chapter 6: Death and hope The reality of death Towards a theology of death Love and death Love and death in an age of interreligious encounter The depth of death and the intensity of love Death, love and hope The mystery of the human soul Chapter 7: Judgement, heaven and hell: The power of symbols Hoping for heaven? Images of an afterlife Heaven in the Early Church Medieval images of heaven On the way to modern images of heaven Judgement, heaven and hell Purgatory and heaven Love and heaven Chapter 8: The Christian praxis of hope and Europe’s future Hope and politics The crisis of the European project The danger of neo-tribalism and populism in Europe Exploring the potential of hope Hope and Europe’s future Chapter 9: Reasons to hope Love and hope Hope and the love of neighbour Hope and the love of God Hope and the love of God’s creation Hope and the love of the self Salvation from evil Inter-hope dialogue Agents of hope Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s radical hope Select Bibliography Index of Names Index of Subjects