Hope in a Hurting World

Michael Goheen

Trinity Western University

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit (Rom.15.13).

Hurting World

• Poverty

Some Poverty Stats

• 3 b. live on less than $2.50/day; 80% of on less than $10/day

• 30,000 children die each day due to poverty• Wealthiest 20% of population accounted for

76.6% of consumption; poorest fifth, 1.5%• Wealthiest 10%, 59% of consumption; poorest

10%, 0.5%.• Priorities: Americans spend $8b. on cosmetics

and $17b. on pet food while $6b. is needed for education for all, $9b. for water and sanitation for all, and $13b. for health and nutrition for all

Hurting World

• Poverty

• Environmental destruction

Some Environment Stats

• If the whole world lived at the level of North Americans the world’s resources would last about 10 years

• Ozone layer: Earth’s protective ozone layer has decreased 20% over last 20 years

• Global warming: Doubling of carbon dioxide emissions will produce 1.5-4.5 increase in average world temperature

• Acid rain: In Eastern Canada 10% more acidic than normal with $1b. damage

• Loss of biodiversity, toxic chemical waste, deforestation, depleting energy supply, unbridled harvesting of resources from ocean floor, etc.

Hurting World

• Poverty

• Environmental destruction

• Arms buildup and terror

Military Spending Stats

• One day’s worth of global spending would feed world’s hungry for years!

• $780b. spent on arms• US spends $2b. per day on military matters• US’s military budget larger than next 15 nations

combined• $4b./year would cut hunger in half in Africa over

next decade• 10% of US military budget would take care of

basic needs of world’s poor

Hurting World

• Poverty

• Environmental destruction

• Arms buildup and terror

• Psychological troubles

Psychological deficits

• Low self-esteem; Depression; Stress; Obsessive compulsion; Sado-masochistic; Identity crisis; Seasonal affective disorder; Post-traumatic stress disorder; Burned out; Paranoid; Bulimia; Midlife crisis; Anorexia; Psychopathic deviate; Repression

• All these words have come into English vocabulary in the last half century (Gergen)

Hurting World

• Poverty

• Environmental destruction

• Arms buildup and terror

• Psychological troubles

• Social problems

Sampling of Social Problems

• Breakdown of marriages and family• Crime• Sex trafficking• Suicide• Impoverishment of life through technology• Enormous ethical/medical issues raised by

technology• ETC.

Narrating Our World

• Which story on offer gives hope for our hurting world?

• Robert E. Webber, Who Gets to Narrate the World? Contending for the Christian Story in an Age of Rivals

• “This book addresses the most pressing spiritual issue of our time: Who gets to narrate the world?”

Which rival story?

• Global story of western humanism?

• Muslim story?

• Christian story?

Global story of western humanism

• This story:– developed in Europe– spread to European colonies (e.g., North

America, Australia, etc.)– has roots all the way back to the Greeks– became the public religious story of

Europe in the 18th (vision) and 19th and 20th (embodiment) centuries

– is globalising– is the dominant global story today

Enlightenment Vision: Seeds of Global Story

• Progress• Paradise images• Material prosperity• Reached by reason• Discerning natural laws• Translated into technology• Society reorganized according to

reason• Exaggerated place of economics

19th Century Implementation

• Age of revolutions: Society brought into conformity with the Enlightenment faith

• French, industrial, American, democratic, Marxist

If the Enlightenment vision is true then “the establishment of new social institutions is not a tedious incidental task, but a dire necessity and a highly ethical imperative. In that case, the narrow way to the lost paradise can only be the way of social revolution” (Goudzwaard).

20th Century Development

• Two forms of Enlightenment story:– Liberalism in North America and Western

Europe– Communism in Russia and Eastern Europe

• Two forms dominated most of 20th century

• Collapse of Soviet Union

• “The end of history?” (Fukyama)

Does the liberal humanist story offer hope for a hurting world?

• Acknowledge it has brought much good

• Economic and technological idolatry

• Producing consumer society in West

• Exacerbating (if not primary cause of) poverty, environmental destruction, social and psychological problems

• Inevitable collapse beneath idolatry

Muslim story

• This story:– has roots back to 6th century A.D.– is primary contender to western story– is hostile rival to western story– gaining momentum and confidence

globally and in heartland of western story (Europe)

– numbers, money, single religious vision– is interpreted differently by different

factions of Islam

Religion?

“Islam is not a religion in the common, distorted meaning of the word, confining its scope to the private life of man. It is a complete way of life, catering for all the fields of human existence. Islam provides guidance for all walks of life . . . The Qu’ran enjoins man to enter the fold of Islam without any reservation and to follow God’s guidance in all fields of life.”

(Ahmed)

Struggle between Islam and West

“The underlying problem for the West is not Islamic fundamentalism. It is Islam, a different civilization whose people are convinced of the superiority of their culture and are obsessed by the inferiority of their power. The problem for Islam is not the CIA or the U.S. department of defense. It is the West, a different civilization whose people are convinced of the universality of their culture and believe that their superior, if declining, power imposes on them the obligation to extend that culture throughout the world. These are the basic ingredients that fuel conflict between Islam and the West.” (Huntington).

Does the Muslim story offer hope for a hurting world?

• Danger of radical Islam

“Islam is a comprehensive system that tends to annihilate all tyrannical and evil systems in the world and enforce its own program. . . . a revolutionary concept and ideology which seeks to change and revolutionize the world social order and reshape it according to its own concept and ideals.” (Mawlana Abul A’la Mawdudi 1903-1979)

Does the Muslim story offer hope for a hurting world?

• Moderate Islam offer more hope?

• Refusal to stand against radical Islam—why?

• Heart of Muslim faith

Heart of the Muslim faith

• One God—Allah

• To found a community ruled by shariah law over all of life (umma)

• Two regions: daar al-salaam/islam and daar al-harb

• Mission: Establish peace throughout world by striving (jihad)

Jihad

“ . . . a defining concept or belief in Islam, a key element in what it means to be a believer and follower of God’s will . . . A universal religious obligation for all true Muslims to join the jihad to promote a global Islamic revolution.” (John Esposito)

“For most of the fourteen centuries of recorded Muslim history, jihad was most commonly interpreted to mean armed struggle for the defence or advancement of Muslim power.” (Bernard Lewis)

Heart of the Muslim faith

• One God—Allah

• To found a community ruled by shariah law over all of life (umma)

• Two regions: daar al-salaam/islam and daar al-harb

• Mission: Establish peace throughout world by striving (jihad)

• Intrahistorical victory

Tolerance: Christianity and Islam

“What is unique about the Christian gospel is that those who are called to be its witnesses are committed to the public affirmation that it is true—true for all people at all times—and are at the same time forbidden to use coercion to enforce it. They are therefore required to be tolerant of denial . . . not in the sense that we must tolerate all beliefs because truth is unknowable and all have equal rights. The toleration which a Christian is required to exercise is not something which he must exercise in spite of his or her belief that the gospel is true, but precisely because of this belief. This marks one of the very important points of difference between Islam and Christianity.” (Lesslie Newbigin)

Hope for hurting world . . . problems

• Toleration and Islam• Islamic imperialism in first centuries• Debate about democracy among Muslims• Treatment of minorities and women• Issue of conversion• Preservation of democracy after used to

gain power• Human rights: Islam and UN

(Colin Chapman)

Christian story

• Start with the good news of Jesus Christ• Claims to tell the true story of the world

“The whole point of Christianity is that it offers a story which is the story of the whole world. It is public truth” (N.T. Wright).”

Christian story

• Start with the good news of Jesus Christ

• Claims to tell the true story of the world

• Much to learn about this from Muslims!

Ziauddin Sardar’s critique

• Christianity has “become a handmaiden to secularism . . . Christianity, it appears, always chooses as secularism wills.”

• Christianity is dualistic as a result of historic compromises with Platonism and rationalism

• “ . . . The spread of Christianity in the Third World goes hand in hand with the introduction of liberal secularism and Western capitalism into developing societies . . . Christianity thus serves the interest of secularism in the Third world, despite loud declarations of love and an appearance of authenticity, missionary activity spreads a dehumanizing form of Western culture and capitalism”

Christian story

• Start with good news of Jesus Christ• Claims to tell the true story of the world• Much to learn about this from Muslims!• This story offers hope for restoration of all things• Call to church to embody the end today in love• This story must penetrate and shape the whole

educative enterprise• Again, much to learn from Muslims!

Abdul Qadir’s (Philosophy and Science in the Islamic World)

“The Islamic theory of knowledge . . . is based upon the spiritual conception of man and the universe he inhabits, while [the Western theory] is secular and devoid of the sense of the Sacred. It is precisely for this reason, according to Muslim thinkers, that the Western theory of knowledge poses one of the greatest challenges to mankind.”

Abdul Qadir’s further comments:

Islamic belief in the sovereignty of Allah “means that the sense of the Sacred which furnishes the ultimate ground for knowledge has to accompany and to interpenetrate the educative process at every stage. Allah not only stands at the beginning of knowledge, He also stands at the end and He also accompanies and infuses grace into the entire process of learning.”

How can our education produce . . .

• A community who experiences God’s presence in a secular world?

• A community of justice in a world of economic and ecological injustice?

• A community of generosity and simplicity (of ‘enough’) in a consumer world?

• A community of selfless giving in a world of selfishness?• A community of truth (humility and boldness) in a world of

relativism?• A community of hope in a world of disillusionment and

consumer satiation?• A community of joy and thanksgiving in a world of

entitlement?

Christian education today

• Need to know and find place in biblical story

• Need to understand world Bible narrates (worldview)

• Wrestle with implications for education

• Lifelong calling

• Serious business!

• Need for vital spirituality