Surprised by Hope 2

The second part of Surprised by Hope takes a look at what God's purpose is for the world as a whole (as opposed to what God's purpose is for individuals). Wright begins by looking at two popular visions of God's purpose, one optimistic and one pessimistic. The first is the myth of progress. This is the myth that we are hearing all the time right now in this political season. This myth is a distortion of the Christian view of God's purpose. The myth of progress states that the world is continually getting better, especially through science and technology or the economy, and is on its way towards a utopia. Barack Obama recently said, for example, that "America is the last, best hope of Earth." I believe he borrowed that line from Abraham Lincoln.

Wright points out that the myth of progress can neither explain nor get rid of the horrible evils that we see in the world. If we have been progressing, why was the 20th century the bloodiest century in the history of the world? Wright points out "the last two hundred years remains helpless before world war, drug crime, Auschwitz, apartheid, child pornography" and countless other atrocities. Despite what our politicians seem to believe (and despite all the good things America has done), it seems to be helpless in the face of all these things. The myth that we are making progress seems to be just that - a myth.

The second, pessimistic, view that Wright talks about is what he calls "souls in transit." The hope in this view is for something else besides this world. While the myth of progress said things are getting better, the souls in transit view says that this world is bad and our hope is in something beyond this world. This view sees our souls as good and our bodies as bad - the hope that lies ahead comes when we shed our "material selves" and return to some spiritual existence.

Neither of these views is the hope that Christians have for the future. The Christian hope for the future is that God is going to renew and restore His entire creation. Creation is good, but fallen. The future hope for the world is that the fallen creation will be redeemed. "Redemption doesn't mean scrapping what's there and starting again from a clean slate but rather liberating what has come to be enslaved." Evil isn't physical matter, but a rebellion against God. So redemption isn't our souls going to heaven, but our body and soul (and, in fact, the entire Creation) turning back towards God. This also means that our future hope, as individuals, isn't that we will go to heaven and spend eternity there with God. Rather, our future hope is that death will be defeated and we will be resurrected to live on a new (restored) earth.

The third part of the book takes a look at what all this means for the present. What does our future hope mean for the hear and now?