Christian Hope among Rivals: How Life-Organizing Stories Anticipate the End of Evil

Hope is a widespread if not a universal human experience. For centuries followers of Jesus of Nazareth have ordered their lives around a central hope. How is their experience similar to or different from others who live by hope? This book seeks an answer in the idea that living by hope involves living within a peculiar story of the world--an incomplete story. The stories that shape these hopes are threatened by evil however it may be defined--he hopeful struggle as characters caught up in plots that move toward resolution. They exercise an as-yet unverified hope that evil will not prevail. In this regard the hope of Christians is similar to others. Yet it is different because they wait for the God of Jesus to transform the world to match the promise he made to Abraham. To arrive at this conclusion this book takes a detour through four model life-organizing stories. Christians and participants in other stories-of-the-world may not agree on the ultimate ground for hope. However taking a detour into the hopeful experience of another may help uncover a place where rivals can stand together long enough to talk. Michael Zeiglers insightful text rightly returns us to the immense power of life-organizing stories. The Christian description of reality continues to mold and shape our individual narratives imbibing them with meaning found in the cross and empty tomb--the place where the essential conflict between God sin and humanity is resolved. Ever gracious Christian Hope Among Rivals invites Christians into meaningful conversation with other traditions without surrendering the profound hope that is offered in Christ alone. --Joel Oesch Associate Professor of Theology Concordia University Irvine Michael Zeigler ventures into the thickets of our everyday confrontations with a variety of forms of evil and of the various solutions offered by contemporary proposals for explaining our dilemmas. In this volume he demonstrates that an understanding of how we fit into the grand narrative of Gods and humankinds unfolding history provides the only sure-footed hope--that which is found in Christ and his death and resurrection--for finding ones way through the challenges of our age. This is a work of exciting theological experimentation and a valuable aid for daily life and for spiritual pastoral care of self and others. --Robert Kolb Professor of Systematic Theology Emeritus Concordia Seminary Saint Louis Missouri Zeiglers significant work offers a rigorously argued and important update of narrative theology and compelling intellectual history of theodicy and evil. Zeiglers pastoral voice appears occasionally as he deftly integrates speech act and narrative theory alongside theology and philosophy culminating in a clear conception of Christian hope. Even readers disinclined to share his conviction will find a very worthwhile thoughtful and compelling analysis of hope and evil well-suited for our twenty-first-century world. --Daniel Boscaljon author of Vigilant Faith: Passionate Agnosticism in a Secular World Zeigler models honest engagement in an environment where Christian thought is no longer the starting point for dialogue. By opening us up to rival life-organizing stories he demonstrates clearly what makes Christian hope truly unique: Jesus. With an academic mind and a pastoral heart Zeigler offers not only a new way of thinking about Christian hope but a new way of thinking about theology. Read this book. --Justin Rossow Senior Pastor St. Luke Lutheran Church Ann Arbor Michigan Christian Hope Among Rivals invites its reader--Christian or otherwise--to self-understanding and respectful dialogue. Zeigler shows that every attempt to make sense of the world that we all know results in a life-organizing story that offers hope. Zeigler helps Christians readers find emphatic contact with others who do not trust in the Triune God. He encourages Christians to live in the hop