Hope Today

Hope is not about uncertain possibility. There is a robust sense of hope: something has happened, and it has happened in a certain way. This volume addresses the question: What is the way of Christian hope? What does it mean to act with hope? And in particular, what does it mean to act, to live, with hope in our churches and in society today?

Matthew E. Burdette is a theologian and an editor at Convergent Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House. He holds a PhD in theology from the University of Aberdeen, having researched the theology of Robert W. Jenson and James H. Cone.


In this volume theologians and pastors from varying Christian traditions, who are rooted in the church and share appreciation for the Christian theological tradition, grapple with the mixed blessings of their respective theological inheritances. Phillip Cary writes on Augustine, Frederick Christian Bauerschmidt on Aquinas, Amy C. Schifrin on Luther, Carolyn A. Chau on Balthasar, and David Luy on Pannenberg--each identifying where they see their theologian coming up short, but in light of what they got right. To conclude the volume, Chad Raith II unpacks how his own convictions changed regarding infant baptism. This collection of essays is a testament to the importance of ecumenical, church-based, critical yet appreciative receptive theology.