Customer Reviews

Hope within History

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how do i rate a book like this? i mean, it's certainly not a "reader". no one's gonna curl up by a fire with a cup of hot chocolate and read this puppy, finding it to be a page-turner. it's an intro, followed by a collection of 5 theological talks, presented by brueggemann at one theological symposium or another. and, unless you live in that world, much of the language is so dry and pithy, i literally laughed out loud when i noticed that the back cover said that the author was known for how readable he is. yet, that said, there were some theological gems in this baby that just blew me away. like, there were ideas in this little book that will shape things i think and say and write for -- well -- the rest of my life. it's that kind of framing book. i've been doing quite a bit of thinking about christian hope, and scot mcknight had recommended this (and a couple other brueggemann books) as part of my background reading. brueggemann has, in 100 pages, given me a new biblical framing for understanding how hope plays out in our lives.

This is now dated, and out of print. But the subject of whether people of faith can still hold hope in our time is still apropos. Brueggemann does it well in this collection of articles.