We struggle immensely to get used to ourselves. I have always found it interesting that we so often assume we really know someone else, their motivations and fears and perspectives and opinions, maybe even what is wrong with them, and yet we struggle to know ourselves.
One thing that still confounds me is how, with almost the exact set of circumstances, I can feel bright and hopeful or fearful and anxious. I try to reflect upon this in the moment. For example, when I am feeling low or grey or terrible I will ask myself how different the situation is then when I felt great and cheerful. Often there is relatively little difference. So are things good or are they bad?
The radio show Ideas on CBC ran a two-part interview with an author who presents the argument that our society is in decline. His book is called, “On Decline: Stagnation, Nostalgia and Why Every Year is the Worst One Ever.” In the interview, Andrew Potter did not sound despondent or hopeless. Maybe this was because being interviewed on such a show would help sell some of the books. His thesis, however, is pretty grim. He focusses on the sense that the decline is civil and political and social. Our institutions, which rely on collegiality, goodwill, democracy and respect for the other, are losing strength. Potter admits that there continues to be incredible technological advance and progress in other areas, but he says that for 20 years or so, particularly from 2016 on, each year has been getting worse.
Evangelically Departed aims to speak of Hopeful Theology. If each year is getting worse, than how might we be hopeful? There are plenty of ways that don’t have to do with Christian faith. Stories of love and sacrifice and insight and growth are plentiful if you look around. There is much beauty and joy in the world. You don’t need to be a Christian to have hope. Hopeful Christian theology has a particular perspective on why we can be hopeful. This perspective is eschatological. That simply means that it has to do with the flow of history and the fullness of things in time.
Too often, what I consider bad interpretations of Christian faith have had a bleak and fearful eschatology. These are views that things are getting worse and worse and only divine intervention and judgment, and ultimately the condemnation of most of humanity, will bring and end to things. This is a form of “every year is the worst year.”
Hopeful Christian theology is not blind to the realities of our world and our current challenges. At the same time, it is bright and hopeful because of a theological (specifically eschatological) focus that says that history is headed towards the renewal of all things in Christ. Such faith does not mean that we ignore the real problems today. Rather it inspires us to aim to live out the hopeful future in the present circumstance.
One tenet of Hopeful Christian theology is that the future determines the present. If this faith holds to the renewal of all things in Christ, then (as Karl Barth says) the Christian ought to be “unconditionally bright”, even if it does appear at times that each year is the worst one yet.