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Hope Is Here!: Spiritual Practices for Pursuing Justice and Beloved Community
Joyful and daunting opportunities to live into God’s dream of justice and beloved community are compelling and available. Hope, says Luther Smith Jr., is essential to the needed personal and social transformations that prepare us for such sacred opportunities. Yet genuine hope is often confused as merely wish fulfillment, optimism, or perceiving better tomorrows. In Hope Is Here! Smith describes how we truly perceive and join “the work of hope,” enlivening us to a life that is oriented toward immediate and future experiences of personal fulfillment, justice, and beloved community. Interpreting five spiritual practices for individuals and congregations to experience the power of hope, this book prepares us to engage racism, mass incarceration, environmental crises, divisive politics, and indifference that imperil justice and beloved community. It delivers the inner resources necessary to work for change through its interpretation of hope. Additionally, each chapter ends with questions that prompt readers to examine their experiences and their readiness to journey with hope. Written for Christians who want to commit themselves to justice and beloved community, this book will provide helpful guidance for a life sustained by God’s gifts of hope and love. Hope is here for our “responsibility” and “response-ability” to live the fulfilling life that God dreams for us.
- GenresSpirituality
175 pages, Paperback
Published November 7, 2023
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58 people want to read
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October 1, 2024
The word hope means different things to different people. For many hope is a synonym for optimism. But, it's much more than that. The book of Hebrews defines faith as the "assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen" (Heb. 11:1). In Jurgen Moltmann's vision of hope, it is eschatological. It envisions a future that God already inhabits and invites us to follow. For people committed to social justice and living into the beloved community, hope is the key to pursuing that vision despite the challenges.
Luther Smith, the emeritus professor of Church and Community at Candler School of Theology, describes the "spiritual practices for pursuing justice and beloved community," in his book "Hope Is Here." He believes that as important as love is, in our day the most important virtue is hope. In this book, Smith shares with us how "hope reveals, empowers, challenges, disrupts, transforms, and enlivens us to God's desire for our lives and the world" (p. x). As such this book introduces us to the spiritual practices that undergird this work of hope that God invites us into. The destination is the beloved community. The subtitle informs us that this journey requires spiritual formation, and these practices help us pursue this calling. Throughout the book, Smith shares stories of people and communities that experience the kind of transformation he envisions.
We begin in Chapter 1 with a definition of hope that is with us here and now. It is a force of God that enables us to become the beloved community. He reminds us that this is a journey that will change us if we take it. After offering definitions and outlining the path forward, in Chapter 2, Smith focuses on "Hope's Work and Its Witnesses." He speaks of the invitations that enable us to experience the beloved community and personal transformation so that we can become people committed to the pursuit of justice. Part of this process is to hear and share stories that lead to transformation.
If hearing and sharing stories is a spiritual practice, so is "Contemplative Praying" (Chapter 3). He believes that prayer can change us by opening our hearts to God's presence. It is the foundation for experiencing hope. Thus, "contemplative praying helps us to remember prophetically and emboldens us to engage (enact in our lives) what we have heard and discerned," and then enables us to pursue further practices (p. 72).
Chapters 4 and 5 spoke to my own journey. Chapter 4 is titled "Prophetic remembering," and according to Luther Smith, it is more than remembering past events, it "is submission to the authority and meaning of what we remember," whether commandments, covenants, or the words of the prophets. This leads to prophetic action on our part. It is also more than remembering the past, for he speaks of "remembering the future." He speaks of prophetic remembering as an "action of healing for societies crises." (p. 96). Chapter 5 speaks of "Crossing Identity Boundaries." While boundaries are important to the process of defining identity, so we need to clarify our boundaries so we can cross them in pursuit of justice and the beloved community. Hope compels us to do just that so that we might experience "God's enlivening love in the people and places where God resides" (p. 105). He reminds us that many don't choose to cross boundaries, for various reasons this is placed upon them making them strangers in a strange land. When we think of refugees and immigrants, and the challenges facing them, we might better understand what this means. Hope is present as we experience/share hospitality.
Chapter 6, titled "Transforming Conflict," invites us to befriend conflict. He notes that conflict has a bad reputation, but conflict, if befriended, can lead to transformation. This happens as conflict opens us up to insights about our relationships. One of the places this occurs is when we cross identity boundaries. It also involves befriending forgiveness, The focus here is on different forms of befriending, which "is the opportunity to be enlivened to life where conflict rages or needs to rage, transformation bekons, and forgiveness heals" (p. 157).
Finally, hope involves celebration in community (Chapter 7: "Celebrating Community). The endpoint of this journey, which requires the pursuit of justice, is discovering/creating the beloved community. As we enter it, there is reason to celebrate. Our sacred rituals help us do this. So Smith introduces us to some of the ways we can celebrate, such as through song, communal sabbaths, spiritual retreats, and prayer. This is a good reminder that the work of justice can wear us down if we're not rooted spiritually. It is also a portal to the beloved community.
If hope is the virtue we need at this moment, not at the expense of love, but as the foundation, Smith offers us a powerful exposition and development of this calling to be people of hope who journey toward the beloved community. This is really a most valuable book for the church to engage with. Each chapter has discussion questions that can assist in this process. At this point in history, where many look back with nostalgia to what many see as a golden age, here is a word that will help us remember prophetically, but move forward not backward.
Luther Smith, the emeritus professor of Church and Community at Candler School of Theology, describes the "spiritual practices for pursuing justice and beloved community," in his book "Hope Is Here." He believes that as important as love is, in our day the most important virtue is hope. In this book, Smith shares with us how "hope reveals, empowers, challenges, disrupts, transforms, and enlivens us to God's desire for our lives and the world" (p. x). As such this book introduces us to the spiritual practices that undergird this work of hope that God invites us into. The destination is the beloved community. The subtitle informs us that this journey requires spiritual formation, and these practices help us pursue this calling. Throughout the book, Smith shares stories of people and communities that experience the kind of transformation he envisions.
We begin in Chapter 1 with a definition of hope that is with us here and now. It is a force of God that enables us to become the beloved community. He reminds us that this is a journey that will change us if we take it. After offering definitions and outlining the path forward, in Chapter 2, Smith focuses on "Hope's Work and Its Witnesses." He speaks of the invitations that enable us to experience the beloved community and personal transformation so that we can become people committed to the pursuit of justice. Part of this process is to hear and share stories that lead to transformation.
If hearing and sharing stories is a spiritual practice, so is "Contemplative Praying" (Chapter 3). He believes that prayer can change us by opening our hearts to God's presence. It is the foundation for experiencing hope. Thus, "contemplative praying helps us to remember prophetically and emboldens us to engage (enact in our lives) what we have heard and discerned," and then enables us to pursue further practices (p. 72).
Chapters 4 and 5 spoke to my own journey. Chapter 4 is titled "Prophetic remembering," and according to Luther Smith, it is more than remembering past events, it "is submission to the authority and meaning of what we remember," whether commandments, covenants, or the words of the prophets. This leads to prophetic action on our part. It is also more than remembering the past, for he speaks of "remembering the future." He speaks of prophetic remembering as an "action of healing for societies crises." (p. 96). Chapter 5 speaks of "Crossing Identity Boundaries." While boundaries are important to the process of defining identity, so we need to clarify our boundaries so we can cross them in pursuit of justice and the beloved community. Hope compels us to do just that so that we might experience "God's enlivening love in the people and places where God resides" (p. 105). He reminds us that many don't choose to cross boundaries, for various reasons this is placed upon them making them strangers in a strange land. When we think of refugees and immigrants, and the challenges facing them, we might better understand what this means. Hope is present as we experience/share hospitality.
Chapter 6, titled "Transforming Conflict," invites us to befriend conflict. He notes that conflict has a bad reputation, but conflict, if befriended, can lead to transformation. This happens as conflict opens us up to insights about our relationships. One of the places this occurs is when we cross identity boundaries. It also involves befriending forgiveness, The focus here is on different forms of befriending, which "is the opportunity to be enlivened to life where conflict rages or needs to rage, transformation bekons, and forgiveness heals" (p. 157).
Finally, hope involves celebration in community (Chapter 7: "Celebrating Community). The endpoint of this journey, which requires the pursuit of justice, is discovering/creating the beloved community. As we enter it, there is reason to celebrate. Our sacred rituals help us do this. So Smith introduces us to some of the ways we can celebrate, such as through song, communal sabbaths, spiritual retreats, and prayer. This is a good reminder that the work of justice can wear us down if we're not rooted spiritually. It is also a portal to the beloved community.
If hope is the virtue we need at this moment, not at the expense of love, but as the foundation, Smith offers us a powerful exposition and development of this calling to be people of hope who journey toward the beloved community. This is really a most valuable book for the church to engage with. Each chapter has discussion questions that can assist in this process. At this point in history, where many look back with nostalgia to what many see as a golden age, here is a word that will help us remember prophetically, but move forward not backward.
December 14, 2024
Beautiful, grounded, hope-filled and practical. I loved the short stories of real people navigating this mad world, trying to find a clear path through the mud. 2024 needed this book. Thank you, Luther Smith, for generously sharing light, kindness and wisdom.
October 18, 2024
Interesting to see the author’s background and his use of information in this book.
October 26, 2025
Many nice sentiments lacking coherence.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews