Some critics of Christianity say that Christian hope is just wishful thinking. Some say that Christianity is just a pipe dream – an unattainable hope.
Frederick Buechner, an author of numerous books about the spiritual life, addresses this in his own comments about Christianity and hope. He writes this in his book, Wishful Thinking:
Christianity is mainly wishful thinking…
Dreams are wishful thinking. Children playing at being grown-ups is wishful thinking. Interplanetary travel is wishful thinking.
Sometimes wishing is the wings the truth comes true on.
Sometimes the truth is what sets us wishing for it.
When people critique Christian hope as simply an unattainable dream, we may respond by saying that perhaps another name for our wishful thinking is faith. Further, perhaps faith is a way not of avoiding reality, but of accessing a reality that is not readily apparent to our senses. Even further still, perhaps the reason we dream about such a thing like Christian hope is that the truth has birthed such a dream in us at the first place. Perhaps God, the Creator, has made us with a yearning for something more because that is actually the way things are and fighting against it is more wishful thinking than pursuing it.
[This is a continuation of this week's theme of "Beginning to Live with Hope."]
Resources on the Gospel of Mark
As I prepare my messages each week this Fall in our series, The Real Jesus, I utilize a number of resources alongside of my direct study of the Bible. Some are basic and others are academic. While I often turn to specific books or articles for each week’s text or topic, here are five resources that I regularly turn to and wanted to share.
Posted by Matt Erickson on November 1, 2012 in Books and Quotations, Eastbrook
Tags: biblical studies, commentaries, Gospel of Mark, Marcan studies, Real Jesus