What we have at the moment isn't as the old liturgies used to say, 'the sure and certain hope of the resurrection of the dead,' but a vague and fuzzy optimism that somehow things may work out in the end.
Interpretation
The quote distinguishes between traditional, definitive hope and a more uncertain, general optimism about the future.
N. T. Wright reflects on the difference between the historical certainty associated with the belief in resurrection and the current state of human optimism, which often lacks clarity and conviction. He suggests that today's views are more about a vague hope that outcomes will somehow improve rather than a firm belief in assured truths.
In practice
In a speech about mental health, one might relate this quote to the need for building a more defined sense of hope.
The resurrection completes the inauguration of God's kingdom. . . . It is the decisive event demonstrating thet God's kingdom really has been launched on earth as it is in heaven." "The message of Easter is that God's new world has been unveiled in Jesus Christ and that you're now invited to belong to it.
True worship doesn't put on a show or make a fuss; true worship isn't forced, isn't half-hearted, doesn't keep looking at its watch, doesn't worry what the person in the next pew is doing. True worship is open to God, adoring God, waiting for God, trusting God even in the dark.
Most of the things that really matter require faith. How do I know that my wife loves me? How do I know that Mozarts Jupiter Symphony is sublime and beautiful? There are all sorts of things which come at a more lowly level than that - How do I know that two plus two equals four? There are different layers, different types of knowing.
To get overprotective about particular readings of the Bible is always in danger of idolatry.
Without God's Spirit, there is nothing we can do that will count for God's kingdom. Without God's Spirit, the church simply can't be the church.
I'm not a universalist, and the way I talk about final loss is this: People worship idols - money, whatever. Their humanness gets reshaped around the idol - you become like what you worship. That's one of the basic spiritual laws.
A man who piously shuts himself up to meditate upon the sin of wickedness and to keep it fresh in his mind joins a brotherhood of awful examples.
A celibate clergy is an especially good idea, because it tends to suppress any hereditary propensity toward fanaticism.
May we live like the lotus, at home in muddy water.
Intelligent discontent is the mainspring of civilization.
There's only one day at a time here, then it's tonight and then tomorrow will be today again.
I also learned that a person was not necessarily bad just because you did not agree with him, and that if you believed in something, you had better be prepared to defend it.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.