Authentic Hope: It's the End of the World as We Know It But Soft Landings Are Possible

The world and nation we've known are coming to an end. It's not that we don't have a future, but the future we do have will differ radically from what we have come to experience as normal. Financial meltdowns, failed wars, melting ice caps, protracted unemployment, the end of cheap oil, and unprecedented droughts, floods, and heat waves all point to one central reality: Like it or not, it is all but certain that both as individuals and as a nation our futures will be marked by disruption and discontinuity. Although this is a scary thought, Authentic Hope builds on a more positive premise: that we have both an opportunity and a responsibility to shape the quality of our future. Whether events five, ten, or thirty years from now play out according to our worst fears or our better selves will be determined by many factors, including our capacity honestly to face problems, to envision and embody alternatives, and to cultivate and sustain hope.

Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer is a professor at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota. He has written 15 books, including The Politics of Compassion, Brave New World Order, Saving Christianity from Empire, and Is Religion Killing us? Violence in the Bible and the Quran.