Theology of Hopelessness | Hope for the Future |

Friends,

I've spent the week learning about how to have a social justice approach to conflict mediation. My head is spinning!

Last weekend I was at Episcopal Divinity School's Alum weekend. As one of the organizers it was exhausting, but the sharing and chance to recognize people lifted my heart.

-Liz

Hopeful Hopelessness?

Episcopal Divinity School just finished our Alum weekend, focused on "passing the torch". Freedom fighters from the sixties and beyond were passing on their work for the next generation.

Friday night we honored Ruby Sales' lifetime of freedom work, including the creation of Spirit House, a national non-profit bringing diverse voices together for education, spirituality, and action for racial, economic, and social justice. Saturday afternoon we honored the Episcopal Theological School classes 1965, 66, and 67. These are the classes that had to figure out how to continue on after Jonathan Daniels was martyred.

The focus of the speakers was to pass the torch of their work on to the next generation of freedom fighters. The evening and the afternoon were full of hope for the future, of appreciation for the work done, and about hope: finding hope, keeping hope, and our faith foundations for hope. Ruby Sales said in 2017 "[e]ven in the face of challenges, there are reasons for hope. Freedom must be seen as a constant struggle. We don’t have to give in to despair." (by Liz Mineo, Harvard Staff Writer For Ruby Sales, Long Road to Hope in Harvard News, April 10, 2017.)

In between these two events, we heard from Dr. Miguel de la Torre and his theology of hopelessness. The moral arc of the universe, he said, is neutral, leaning toward chaos. The only way for us to bend it toward justice is if we do the work. Hope, he argues, is what keeps the oppressed in their place--the idea that it will be better tomorrow, or if not tomorrow, then soon. We can only take the risks, and challenge the existing system, if we accept that it will not get better. It is hopeless.

Hopelessness? How does that fit in to the Christian good news?

de la Torre, I think, is reacting to a form of hope that is a scandalous refutation of the Christian good news. He is reacting to people with privilege who respond to the harm going on in our society by hoping it will get better. By reassuring themselves that progress is happening, without any evidence of that progress. We have in today’s world a sense of hope that assumes that there is always a light at the end of the tunnel, and yet ignores that I have a flashlight with me, and many have no way to see which way is out. Some use the word hope to skip over Holy Saturday, insisting always that we know Easter is coming.

For people with that hope without action, it is important that they hear about this Theology of Hopelessness. To recognize that no one on that first Holy Saturday anticipated Easter. That it is only when it seems there is no way out that people can stop following the rules that oppress them, and their neighbors, and find a way to create the justice they desire. To understand that getting a permit from the police to protest against police actions is simply following the ways of oppression.

And honestly, that was the exactly the hope described by leaders who were honoring Ruby Sales' long life of action to change the moral arc of the universe. And that was the hope described by the students of Episcopal Theological School as they stumbled their way into action that would affect their lives, and the lives of those they worked with in ministry.

What is your church doing, or thinking about doing these days? How are you being here in your particular place? Just reply to this email to let me know what's happening. ​
​

Here is the interview with Ruby Sales by Harvard in 2017.

Toward a Theology of Hopelessness by Miguel de la Torre from his blog March 14, 2015.

Please forward this email to others who might be interested. If you got this from someone else, use the button below to subscribe to the free Act! Be Church Now email newsletter.