Customer Reviews

Hope Has Its Reasons: The Search to Satisfy Our Deepest Longings

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Rebecca Pippert's work addresses the conundrum that we all face living in this world gone wrong. She challenges the reader not only with questions from the secular world, but also with a faulty Christian mind-set that white-washes over the suffering one experiences in both our private and public worlds. Rhetoric from the public media and the pulpit are scrutinized in the light of the Gospel; that message, which uniquely addresses the suffering we encounter in our existence through the cross; and the hope and the life presented us through the resurrection. Despite the sound bites of the world which end in either hype or hypocrisy, Rebecca Pippert forces us to think about not only the evil that is apparent in the world, but our own internalized evil as well. She reminds us that a faith based upon Christ necessitates that we look at the nature of our sin within and without, and that God offers us a unique outlook and hope in addressing it.

This is truly a marvelous work, which I read over 10 years ago. Many of the anecdotes and lessons that Mrs. Pippert has made have stayed with me to this day. It is a precious resource, which may be used for a deeper Christ-centered life or for assisting others in explaining the Gospel. It is a poignant work deserved to be read and referred to in one's faith.

This is the first, of many books, I've read that has really helped me grasp the key concept of the Cross and Resurrection. Pippert is a lucid, pentrating, and comes across as a well-educated and respected woman of theology. This book will appeal to anyone who wants to approach the idea of true Christian transformation.

This is a fresh and helpful book that explores the basic contours of the Christian faith. Rebecca Pippert explores the human condition by showing that the problem in the world lies in our own hearts (chapter 1). We're not okay (chapter 2), neither are we in charge (chapter 3). The problem is that we worship the wrong things (chapter 4). Only God can satisfy our deepest longings - the brokenness of our lives results from seeking that satisfaction in other things - relationships, wealth, sex, pleasure, status, etc. This idolatrous worship is sin (chapter 5) The answer to our woes is found in the gospel: the story of Jesus crucified and risen (chapters 6-7). When we respond to the gospel in honest confession and a life of genuine repentance, we are changed (chapter 8). The Christian life is an appropriation of the gospel, as live the cross in humble denial of self (chapter 9) and live the resurrection in joyful hope (chapter 10).

This is really an amazing book because it speaks with such poignancy to the human heart. Mrs. Pippert did not become a Christian until she was a young adult, and only after much struggle and wrestling with difficult philosophical questions. She addresses these questions carefully in this book, illustrating them with numerous conversations, anecdotes, and striking quotations from literature, philosophy, and psychology. Though I've been a Christian for many years, I found this book very moving and helpful.

I would especially recommend this as a book to give to your non-Christian friends. It is not a coercive book, but a thoughtful engagement with issues that most human beings face - loneliness, emptiness, suffering, despair - from a distinctly Christian perspective. This is a book that could be life-changing for you or someone you love.