Volume 10.1
Essays On Hope
Spring 2023

Hope is a word we use regularly in daily life to describe an aspiration, a wish, a dream of something we long for in the future. To hope for something is to have a desire for that thing to come to pass. And while this definition certainly resonates with the biblical and theological usage of hope, when we ground our understanding of hope in the narrative of God’s work in Christ and the Spirit, a much fuller picture emerges. Biblical hope is the settled conviction that that which is not yet will be, that the promises God has made will come to pass. As such, a hopeful life is one lived with hearts and minds oriented to the reality of God, who calls us to live in this world as those whose minds are built on the foundation of the eschatological promise of eternal peace in God’s presence.

The essays contained in this volume of the Center for Pastor Theologians Journal pursue a deeper understanding of hope and how followers of Jesus are formed in hope. It continues our project at the Center for Pastor Theologians of bringing theology into conversation with the findings of the social sciences, finding in that conversation areas of agreement, as well as places of tension, that enable us to develop a rich picture of hope.

Essays

Volume 10.2
Essays On Hope
Fall 2023