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Description	We want to have it all: financial strength, secure homes, clean air and water for our children. With the latest technological advances available, we deserve to have every dilemma resolved. Isn't that the way it's supposed to work? Hope in Troubled Times dares to say "no." Poverty, terrorism, and overtaxed land are planetary problems that make even believers despair. But the authors point to Christ as the source of hope. Our choice is obvious. We work together, learning to live unselfishly, or we watch civilization sink further into the abyss. With a foreword by renowned human rights activist Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Hope in Troubled Times provides real-world solutions to life-threatening problems. The authors show that with God's guidance we can knock down the idols that stunt clear thinking.
Author Information	Bob Goudzwaard (PhD, Erasmus University) is professor emeritus of economics and social philosophy at the Free University of Amsterdam and a former member of the Dutch Parliament. His many books include Globalization and the Kingdom of God. Mark Vander Vennen (MA, MEd, RSW) is a writer and social worker living in Ontario, Canada. David Van Heemst (PhD, University of Virginia) is professor of political science at Olivet Nazarene University and the author of two books.
Endorsements	"The real struggle of our time is the choice between cynicism and hope. Hope in Troubled Times argues persuasively that the power and possibility of biblical hope offers a resolution to the problems of combating terrorism, global poverty, and environmental degradation. Its analysis and engaging narrative challenge us to find new solutions grounded in that hope rather than in the idolatrous ideologies of our times."-- Jim Wallis, author, God's Politics; editor, Sojourners "Hope in Troubled Times pulls off the difficult feat of communicating, in a gracious and nonjudgmental way, the dire straits in which our society finds itself today. Others have used the concept of idolatry as a category of social critique; no one has ever used it with such biblically-informed power and specificity. The analysis is sobering; no punches are pulled. But the ultimate context is hope, not despair. It's a remarkable achievement."-- Nicholas Wolterstorff, Noah Porter Professor Emeritus of Philosophical Theology, Yale Divinity School "If one form of insanity is doing the same things over and over while expecting different results, our world has gone hopelessly mad. More development, more progress, more sound economics, and more political will has not and cannot transform spiraling violence, terminal poverty, ballooning wealth, indifferent market forces, and technologies and systems with wills of their own. Bob Goudzwaard, Mark Vander Vennen, and David Van Heemst see all this with 'epiphany eyes.' Their account of reality and the concrete hope they see is an awakening for those of us too long and too comfortable in the asylum we call the status quo."-- Peter Vander Meulen, co-chair, Micah Challenge USA; coordinator, Office of Social Justice and Hunger Action of the Christian Reformed Church in North America "Hope in Troubled Times is a must read for our bewildering era, when accepted political and economic solutions no longer work. In naming  ideology as the real culprit, the authors provide a deeper and more compelling analysis than Samuel Huntington does in his Clash of Civilizations. Ideology points beyond paradigms and civilizations to the no-alternative absolutes that threaten humanity's very existence today."-- William F. Ryan, SJ, founding director, Center of Concern,  Washington, DC; former General Secretary of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops
Other Endorsements	To read the other endorsements click here for the Baker Publishing Group Website