Surprised By Hope Analysis

“You don't understand the power of loss when it first hits you like a baseball coming fast from an out-of-control pitcher. You reel back stinging from the blow.” (Bauer,162). Throughout the novel Hope Was Here we see characters go through struggles and gain strength to overcome them. In our everyday lives we have struggles that we also have to overcome. In the novel Hope Was Here, one of the characters Braverman has to choose his family or education. The character Addie, faces the struggle of miscarrying three babies. In my life I have struggles and so do the people around me. For instance, my grandma went through the struggle of losing her husband. From this novel it is learned that if there's no struggle there's no strength.

Surprised by Hope by N.T. Wright is a must read for any Christian looking to expand their understanding of faith. Surprised by Hope gives us a full understanding of salvation as it is revealed in the Bible. This book also tells us how we should act in our lives and in this world as God’s redeemed people. It reveals incredible insight that is important to us because it explains just how crucial our role in this world is. Wright talks about the way things currently are and how they will be with the resurrection and our salvation. The book expands on the Christian mission and what it means to live with hope and faith and attempts to answer the very famous question: What is heaven?

The books that we were required to read for Bible 115 class were Engaging God’s World – A Christian Vision Of Faith, Learning And Living by Cornelius Plantinga Jr. and The Call – Finding And Fulfilling The Central Purpose For Your Life by Os Guinness. Both books offered very useful advice for today’s Christians. Engaging God’s World is written for students and will help them make sense of their education in a Christian perspective. Both authors use scripture, humor and common sense to validate their points.

Exemplar case: Kathy is a married 45-year old mother of one and she has recently been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Kathy has always been a positive person in every situation and is quite known at her church for her smile and uplifting words of encouragement. Kathy’s husband and teenage daughter came to visit her at the hospital and were initially shocked and saddened by her sickly appearance. Her husband

Ronald Takaki’s “America’s errand into the wilderness” and Richard Walker’s notion of “prospector capitalism” in California have some similarities and differences. In Takaki’s Overblown with Hope, he includes a term coined by scholar Perry Miller. Miller used “Errand into the Wilderness” to describe a period in American history which reflects an ideology of colonial control and development. Takaki believed that the puritans had an “errand into wilderness” to discover a place where the eyes of the world could look upon them. The “errand” represented the process in reshaping America into their own image. This resulted in a cultural and physical transformation of natural terrain. Because of this ‘errand,’ there was a large value placed on industry,

In the book When the Kings Come Marching In, theologian, Richard J. Mouw goes into depth about the “transformed City” that Isaiah envisions at the end of history (Isaiah 60). Our society believes that “Christ and Culture” are in conflict with one another, but Mouw disagrees with this statement and proposes that the problem is how humans have distorted culture. Mouw goes on and suggests that heaven is and will be a renewed creation that includes embodied existence on earth rather than a spiritual place where creation is apart from the soul. Mouw supports his argument throughout the book by explaining the creation of culture, Christ’s grace towards His creation, and offering a purpose to our existence.

Further on in the book we are also able to see, how even the natural world itself yearns for the return of Christ. “For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that[h] the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.” We should model our lives in this way also. Hoping for the day when Christ comes and we will be brought into glory with our Lord and Savior.

As I was reading Hope Was Here, by Joan Bauer, and Staying Fat For Sarah Byrnes, by Chris Crutcher, I started to see some common themes shared by the two books. Each book showed the values of a strong friendship, the power of strength and determination, and the importance of helping others.

Currently, the future of his congregation members’ lives is very grim: death in eternal flames, powerless to escape, all due to the wrath and whim of God. However, he informs his audience that all across the colonies Christ is accepting all repentant applicants into Heaven. Once they convert, he promises that his pitiful audience will rejoice, sing, and revel in God’s glory, shed of the burden of eternal damnation.

The book, Hope Was Here by Joan Bauer, tells the story of Hope Yancy as she realizes what life is about; letting go of pain and hurt, and cherishing the love. The main character is a sixteen year old waitress named Hope Yancy. She feels she is the person to enlist hope in others and in herself since changing her name from Tulip to Hope. She is a terrific waitress, like her mother. Her mom, Deena, left her older sister to care for Hope after she was born early and could barely eat because she felt she wasn’t ready for motherhood. Addie, Hope’s aunt, is the head or chief cook and manager of diners and eateries she has worked at. She is always thinking about Hope and their lives together. Hope was her only chance at motherhood after three miscarriages

Project HOPE was a community-based pilot program intended to break the cycle of prostitution, by treating both prostitutes and the persons who solicit prostitutes also known as Johns. (OPPAGA report: Project HOPE helped break the cycle of prostitution and solicitation, but had implementation problems, 2004). The program was to provide intake, drug screening, psychological assessments, case management and other essential referrals in order to curb prostitution. The referrals would require additional resources and community outreach. Legislatures recognized that in order to effectively control prostitution their efforts would need to also incorporate and treat those who solicit

“I have carefully and thoroughly read the entire book as assigned.” Throughout David Platt’s book, “Radical : Taking Back Your Faith From the American Dream”, he encourages the reader to take a look at their life and see whether or not Christ is all they need to impact their life for Jesus in a radical way. He asks the reader to carefully examine their life, and see if there are areas that perhaps the Lord would desire for change to take place. Platt challenges the Church to step up and see the urgency in missions realizing that this is the way God designed the lost and dying world to hear the Good News of the Risen and Glorified Savior Jesus Christ.

As I read Fundamentals: Enduring Convictions of the Restoration, through the lens of this assignment, I gained new insight and a different appreciation for his visionary calling to provide a theological perspective that aligns us with a larger Christian understanding.

He supports this by offering several examples of where Christians have neglected the true meaning of the gospel. In chapter 3, Wright explains that, “the good news is that the one true God has now taken charge of the world, in and through Jesus and his death and resurrection” (Wright, 55.) Wright goes on to explain that the good news has happened and will happen. Every single human has the opportunity to be transformed by the good news (Wright, 55.)

Ronald Nash wrote a book called Is Jesus the Only Savior. It discusses his gathered findings and distinctions between Pluralism and Inclusiveness. This paper will explore some of Ronald Nash’s observations and the arguments, logics and Scripture used to support his writings. This paper will discuss several Religious leaders some pluralist others inclusivists, non-Christians, Christians and their beliefs, philosophies or opinions. In this paper the details of inclusiveness is discussed.