There are days when I am not certain that Christianity is true. (I pause for a moment to await a bolt of lightning from on high; as said bolt seems to still remain in the hand of the Almighty – and I seem to still be alive as a result – I boldly carry on). But on those days, I still think the universe would be a better place if it were. And I imagine that’s why the Bible talks a lot about hope. Hope means you aren’t certain that something is true, but you desire that it is, and you think it is at least possible that it is. Well, even on days when I’m not certain Christ is alive, I hope He is. I feel on those days like Jeff Jordan, a philosophy professor at the University of Delaware, when he wrote the following words about Christianity:
“I hope that the Christian message is true, and I try to act in the light of that hope. While I assent to the propositions of Christianity, I think it best to describe my faith as hope rather than as a belief because I do not think that I have rationally decisive evidence for the truth of the Christian claims, and I realize that it is a real, though to my mind not a very likely, possibility that Christianity could turn out to be false…hope provides a stable and rational basis on which one can erect the scaffolding of faith.”
Many days I feel like that. I take the parable of the prodigal son as an example of what I mean. In this story, God runs to meet the son who threw away His fortune on prostitutes, welcomes the son back with open arms, puts the best robe on him, throws a feast in his honor. Well, when I read that story, I always think I really hope that God is actually like that. I hope God really would run towards me if I ran back to Him; I hope He would put the best Griz jacket He had on me; and give me, not just something from McDonald’s, but a Red Robin Deluxe Bleu Cheese Angus burger and the Parmesan Cheese fries.
Sadly, a huge male population has problem viagra online to maintain the erection Size of the penis don t increase much Pain during erection Irritation No interest in getting romantically intimate or unable to ejaculate etc. This would be beneficial as he may check up your entire health and would recommend you the most suitable and recommended cheap cialis in canada treatment of ED on earth. levitra online cheap It may result in divorce, breakups or it may lead to cause extreme side-effects. It shouldn’t be consumed along with alcohol as cialis pills canada well cigarette.
And I feel that way about Christianity in general. God, somehow beyond all reason dying for me out of love: I really do hope there is a God like that in the universe. And of course, most days that’s what I actually believe God is like. But I think there is room in the Christian tent for those who, at best, can only hope for Him and long for Him and try to trust Him despite a lack of firm belief. I do not recall that Jesus was scornful to the man in the Bible who said “help me in my unbelief!” So if some days…or years…or decades, you feel like you cannot really believe in Him, do not despair – but do not give up hope. There is room for you in Christianity. If He is indeed alive, He is bigger than your doubt.
At least, I hope so, because some days I might be in big trouble otherwise!
Lately, it’s been considered clever to say that “hope is not a strategy”. Your post makes it clear that hope is at least a place to start, and sometimes it’s all we’ve got.
For what it’s worth, the best book I ever read about Christian hope was Jacques Ellul’s “Hope in Time of Abandonment”. (As an aside: one of the things I miss about being Christian is reading the likes of Ellul and Lev Shestov: such powerful, profound, angrily prophetic voices, denouncing much if not all of modernity. Of course, both men were notorious cranks–Shestov in particular; Ellul retained a certain intellectual respectability–but I found them congenial. I guess I could still read them, but I don’t think it would be the same.) I’d add that much of Walker Percy’s work falls into the category of “Christian hope” as well; oddly, so do the later novels of science-fiction writer Philip K. Dick (one takes hope where one finds it).
Finally: your post inspires me to look up Anne Sexton’s poem “Snow,” which is about hope; I’m going to post it on my website. Thanks…
Hope is a double-edged sword. Think on the myth of Pandora’s Box (originally a jar since they had large jars back then, which incidentally might have symbolized the womb, but I digress) – Zeus gives to Pandora a box and tells her not to open it, and when she does all the evils of the world pop out of it, but she manages to shut it in time to keep Hope trapped inside.
Now in that story, it is normally seen as, “Oh that’s nice! At least humanity can hold onto Hope against all those terrible things,” or “At least the gods put that bit of non-crappiness in the box…” But there is the question of why Hope was there in the first place. Why would it be shoved into a vessel containing all the evils and terrible things in the world? Could it not be potentially the WORST evil in the world of men?
That myth doesn’t answer the question, since the pondering of it is far more worth considering than any answer. But I would say that while Hope can keep a person going through very dark times against seemingly all rational and emotional arguments, it can make one blindly press on despite what one ought to be doing or believe. It can cloud and obscure seeing the truth potentially just as it can overcome irrational influences, and so it is a very powerful thing indeed.
I suppose I wouldn’t want to base my own beliefs based at its core on hopes. As in, I wouldn’t want to have my beliefs in morality for instance, if totally and utterly torn apart by sound and reasonable arguments, to have at its core an idea of, “I HOPE this was all right,” as that would be very dissatisfactory to me. Why? Because I cannot point at this Hope and disprove it. It is irrefutable and neither reality nor fantasy can penetrate it. That means even if my beliefs were false I would never be able to escape them towards those that were true, and not being able to accurately see and understand the world (and how best to perceive it – a whole other matter) is I think the only thing I could permit myself to hope against – My hope is to understand and interpret reality properly enough to function to my greatest ability.
So I suppose my perspective is that if my critical outlooks and beliefs in life unwind down to core spindles of hope alone, I haven’t been building my beliefs properly. But I think it isn’t quite that simple with most deeply-held beliefs anyway – there are reasons beyond hope at the bottom of them for why they emerged, how they developed, and what they are today. Hope can be an accessory to that, but in my atheism I do not hope for a non-god any more than I would a god – what is will be regardless of my hopes, and a godless universe works the same (if not better logically, in my perspective) as a god-filled universe.
I enjoy you because of all of your effort on this website. Betty take interest in getting into research and it’s really simple to grasp why. My spouse and i learn all regarding the compelling form you make valuable tips by means of this web blog and in addition improve participation from other people on the content and my child is certainly learning a great deal. Take pleasure in the rest of the new year. You have been doing a good job.