It is not wrong to hope that things may get better before they get worse, that the world may yet avoid some—or even many—of the catastrophes that are barreling toward us: ecological, psychological, economic, political. But what would be unfortunate would be for us to allow our hope and our vision of the good to become contingent upon that avoidance, for us to equate hope with optimism. A hope that depends on the worst NOT happening will fall impotently short if and when the worst indeed happens—when the oceans rise, the bombs drop, the diseases surge, the immigrants rot in death camps, the wealthy dominate, the sick go unattended, and the poor starve to death in debt-slavery. The hope we have in Jesus Christ, thankfully, is not a hope merely for avoidance (though, of course, it demands that we work toward that renewal and reconciliation that may indeed lead to such avoidance). The hope we have in Jesus Christ is that the God of life and resurrection persists and suffers with the suffer...