Getting to the heart of the gospel message for everyone

A Gospel of Hope

by Walter Brueggemann (Hodder and Stoughton, £12.99)

As we get ready to mark the end of the First World War, the Great War as it was then called, and the war to supposedly save civilisation, many will be recalling that the treaty that concluded that appalling conflict was the source, within a generation, of another war.

Again people went to war. Though perhaps fewer soldier were killed, the industrialisation of war meant that many more civilians died. But from that war, came two other wars, more tragedies and conflict, more pain and suffering. All too many of the crisis points of today, Korea and the Middle East for instance, find their  sources of conflict in the actions of self- righteous leaders in the past.

Walter Brueggemann [pictured], the well-known American evangelical pastor, speaks to this moment: “Beyond that despair that allows road rage and violence against the poor and war and violence and ruthless exploitation that leaves one exhausted if not half dead, there is an alternative world bodied in Jesus.”

Wise
 words

These are wise words, but how often do you meet religious people who believe that war is justifiable, believe in capital punishment,  and that the Gospels condone the acquisition of riches.

This is a short book, but one filled with a Christian-based message of hope for humanity and the world, even as dark clouds gather at the end of the horizon warning of yet more conflicts to come.