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Article: Prisoners of hope.(religious leaders )(Editorial)
- Article from:
- Currents in Theology and Mission
- Article date:
- October 1, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 Lutheran School of Theology and Mission. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The expression "prisoners of hope" appeared in the first lesson on July 3 and is recorded in Zech 9:11. I suppose we refer more frequently to ourselves as prisoners of fear/terror, or prisoners of our glands/lusts, or prisoners of our past/upbringing. Prisoners of hope are not enslaved by hope but liberated by it. That is, prisoners of hope wait for and even expect liberation; they do not take their imprisonment as inevitability. Prisoners of hope are living, breathing oxymorons. They see things that never were and ask, "Why not?" They are peccatores who are also, at the same time, already, justae and justi. People on an interfaith journey or repentant criminals on Calvary ...