The Christian Hope

Since The Christian Hope was first published in 1984, eschatology has remained a central concern of Christian Theology. This updated edition allows a new readership to engage afresh with questions of eschatology in a twenty-first century context. --Book Jacket.

In this work Louis Berkhof explores the the history and theology of assurance of salvation through faith, showing how a Christian should be assured of their salvation through trusting Christ. This is a phenomenal book to read if you are doubting your faith.

In Christian faith, the present is continuously re-shaped by ventures of hopeful and expectant living. In art, the poetic interplay between past, present and future takes specific concrete forms, furnishing vital resources for sustaining an imaginative ecology of hope.This volume attends to the contributions that architecture, drama, literature, music and painting can make, as artists trace patterns of promise, resisting the finality of modernity's despairing visions and generating hopeful living in a present which, although marked by sin and death, is grasped imaginatively as already pregnant with future.

Under the guidance of one of the world's leading New Testament scholars, you and your small group will here discover that the bizarre images of Revelation conceal one of Scripture's clearest and most dramatic visions of God's plan for creation.

Hope is essential to human life. Without hope, humanity plunges into despair, and life can lose all purpose and meaning. Hope energizes people and communities, and also produces forbearance and patience. In this clear and accessible survey, which incorporates Asian perspectives, Roland Chia shows how Christian hope presses beyond the limits of both secular and religious world-views and confronts the reality of pain, suffering and death in the light of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is hope for God, and in God.

What does it mean to hope for heaven? Brian Hebblethwaite traces the background to the Christian hope in the faith of Israel, examines its primary basis in the acts of God in the story of Jesus Christ, and follows the history of Christian attitudes to the future of humanity and of creation throughout the Christian centuries. The Christian Hope tells the complex story of the different strands, emphases and problems that have developed between biblical times and our own in the quest to understand 'the four last things' - death, judgement, heaven and hell. Hebblethwaite concentrates our attention on the modern period since 1900, an era when modern Christian theology has witnessed a remarkable recovery of interest in hope and the future as dominant motifs in its reflections. The discoveries of modern science have affected Christian hope and Christian understanding of creation and its ultimate destiny. At different stages in the history of the church, very different stresses have been laid on the present or on the future, on hope for the individual or on hope for society, on this-worldly hope or on other-worldly hope. Through a study of the basis of Christian hope and of the history of its interpretation, Hebblethwaite aims to present a balanced view of these different elements in the Christian tradition and a credible eschatology for today.

Hope is a widespread, if not a universal, human experience. For centuries, followers of Jesus of Nazareth have ordered their lives around a central hope. How is their experience similar to or different from others who live by hope? This book seeks an answer in the idea that living by hope involves living within a peculiar story of the world--an incomplete story. The stories that shape these hopes are threatened by evil, however it may be defined&mdash. The hopeful struggle as characters caught up in plots that move toward resolution. They exercise an as-yet unverified hope that evil will not prevail. In this regard, the hope of Christians is similar to others. Yet, it is different because they wait for the God of Jesus to transform the world to match the promise he made to Abraham. To arrive at this conclusion, this book takes a detour through four model life-organizing stories. Christians and participants in other stories-of-the-world may not agree on the ultimate ground for hope. However, taking a detour into the hopeful experience of another may help uncover a place where rivals can stand together long enough to talk. "Michael Zeigler's insightful text rightly returns us to the immense power of life-organizing stories. The Christian description of reality continues to mold and shape our individual narratives, imbibing them with meaning found in the cross and empty tomb--the place where the essential conflict between God, sin, and humanity is resolved. Ever gracious, Christian Hope Among Rivals invites Christians into meaningful conversation with other traditions without surrendering the profound hope that is offered in Christ alone." --Joel Oesch, Associate Professor of Theology, Concordia University Irvine