Perspectives from Prison on Hope: Hope in Time of Abandonment

Perspectives from Prison on Hope: Hope in time of Abandonment

Seven Seductive Substitutes for HOPE

Texts: “A new heaven and a new earth” “I am making all things new.” Revelation 21.1-22.5

“The God of Hope” Romans 15.3

“He who has a “why” to live for can bear almost any “now.” (Nietzsche)

Examples: Victor Frankl in Auschwitz; the word ‘elpis’ does not appear in the Greek text of the Revelation, but hope is a dominant theme (Beckett, Waiting for God). In the seductive world of Paul and John, the typical attitude of the masses was one of the hopelessness in the face of death (I Thess 4.13-18). Catullus 5.4-6 expresses the despair of the first century paganism when he writes that—

“Death is sleep from which there is no waking. The sun can set and rise again, but once again our brief light sets; there is one unending night to be slept through.” (egs. Mystery religions, Gnosticism, Neo-Platonism, Tolkien’s ‘Eucatastrophe’).

Also, Theocritus (Idyll 4.42) states that “Hopes are for the living; the dead are without hope.”

One of man’s most dangerous myths is his need for equilibrium (in Biology, homeostasis). What man actually needs is not a tension-less state, as suggested by Freud, but rather the striving and struggling for some goal worthy of him. What he needs is not the discharge of life’s daily tensions at any cost, but the call of a potential meaning waiting to be fulfilled by him, i.e., meaning to be attained. This is the essence of Christian hope in a time of abandonment. The power of hope can overcome the Seductive Power of our culture.

Historically, “cultural seduction” has deceived large elements of the Christian community six times! Yes, six times The Grave Digger has sought to seduce the Church into its grave: perhaps the most dangerous challenge to the Church of Jesus Christ is cultural seduction (cf. Jacque Ellul’s Seduction of the Church and Oz Guinness’, The Grave Digger File).

After the destruction of the Jewish State in 70 A.D., the Church experienced several periods of crisis leading from cultural seduction to various forms of repression of Christian witness.

1. The 5th century (410 A.D.) – the fall of the Roman Empire.

2. the 14/15th centuries – the Reformation.

3. The 15/16th centuries – the first Scientific Revolution.

4. The 18th century – the Industrial Revolution.

5. The 19th century – Biological Revolution (1859).

6. The 20th/21stcenturies - second Scientific Revolution plus the third Biological Revolution, High Tech (Mega Trends and Mega Traumas vs. Mega Truth).

Yet in the past 50 years of the 20th century more people have died because of their Christian faith than in all the preceding centuries of persecution. Surely we must expose “Hope in time of Abandonment” to the world in this first decade of the 21st century.

Perspective on Hope against Seven Seductive Substitutes for Hope:

1. Despair against Hope

Secular Humanism/Pluralism

Megatrend optimism

Wars in the Middle East – Iraq, Israel and in Africa, Latin America.

Men with the most knowledge express the most gloom (Waiting for God).

2. Blind Optimism

The Megatrend-Megatrauma of the 90s and 21st century as an enemy of Christian hope.

Human potential – New Age Movements

3. Escapism to Mysticism and Nostalgia

No shock, rage, tears, or pain

‘Journey of the Self-Centered Self

Uninvolvement, disenchantment, non commitment

4. Radical Idealism of the Baby Boomer and ‘Boomerang’ Generation

Rightly protesting the futility of war.

Rape of the environment

Critique of capitalist lack of compassion (homeless people)

Lack of compassion for the poor and oppressed

“The psychological lust for the simpler, less turbulent times” (Toffler)

5. Totalitarian States

Eastern Europe – Poland, Romania

Russia

Religious fanaticism and war

6. The Turn Eastward

Coping with crisis by revolt against Education, Science and Technology

From Prayer to Meditation – Zen Buddhism

Hindu Mysticism

New Age Explosion (the Search for Inner Peace and Security)

7. The Turn Inward

The Needs (ME) Generation

Drugs

Sexual Revolution – Instant excitement

Search for the Supreme Experience (how long does it last?)

Conclusion: Perspective on Hope from Prison (God of Stones and Spiders) Christian Hope must take two things seriously if these Seductive Substitutes are to be overcome:

1. Human nature is not self-transforming

2. Jesus Christ is the Lord of Hope (Romans 1.18-32)

Dr. James Strauss

Lincoln, Illinois

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