The namesake of this blog is taken from a phrase my wife supplied as she carefully read through drafts for Faith Without Illusions. Hopeful Realism is a perspective that holds rosy idealism and shallow optimism as incompatible in an ex-Eden world (hence, “Realism”). But the perspective is “hopeful” because it holds that cynicism is incompatible…
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I check the biblioblog Euangelion at least a few times each week. I had met Joel Willitts before, so I decided to sheepishly ask if he would consider taking a look at my book on cynicism for a possible review (giving him the freedom to review it badly if necessary, of course!). He posted his…
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Since writing a book on cynicism, I have been wondering about the portrayal of cynics in literature and film. So far the list is quite short: Melvin Udall in As Good As it Gets (played by Jack Nicholson) and Ivan Karamazov in Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov. Holden Caufield of Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye…
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I am reading Church Dogmatics VI.1, sections 57-59, and I just had a moment. Okay, I have all sorts of great moments in reading Barth so far, but something that stood out this morning is the comment below. The reason it struck me is because the hopeful orientation of the Christian to the incoming (and…
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The next post on my book is up at Jesus Creed. As I have commented before, reading what others write about their reading of what I have written is both exciting and daunting. But I really think I learn more about what God was doing with me during the writing process when I read many…
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I work on a church staff with ten other pastors. These guys are amazing. As I penned a note in the copy of Faith Without Illusions that our senior pastor was kind enough to purchase, I realized afresh that there has been a shift of sorts in my conception of who I was writing to….
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I am so grateful for the folks at Relevant for posting another article. This one is on the idea of “Hopeful Realism,” the namesake of this blog and the main objective outlined in my book, Faith Without Illusions: Following Jesus as a Cynic-Saint. The challenge on writing on the topic of cynicism is that I…
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