3.5
The Hope of Glory
ByPublisher Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Pulitzer Prize–winning author Jon Meacham explores the seven last sayings of Jesus as recorded in the Gospels, combining rich historical and theological insights to reflect on the true heart of the Christian story.
For Jon Meacham, as for believers worldwide, the events of Good Friday and Easter reveal essential truths about Christianity. A former vestryman of Trinity Church Wall Street and St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue, Meacham delves into that intersection of faith and history in this meditation on the seven phrases Jesus spoke from the cross.
Beginning with “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do” and ending with “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit,” Meacham captures for the reader how these words epitomize Jesus’s message of love, not hate; grace, not rage; and, rather than vengeance, extraordinary mercy. For each saying, Meacham composes an essay on the origins of Christianity and how Jesus’s final words created a foundation for oral and written traditions that upended the very order of the world.
Writing in a tone more intimate than any of his previous works, Jon Meacham returns us to the moment that transformed Jesus from a historical figure into the proclaimed Son of God, worshiped by billions.
For Jon Meacham, as for believers worldwide, the events of Good Friday and Easter reveal essential truths about Christianity. A former vestryman of Trinity Church Wall Street and St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue, Meacham delves into that intersection of faith and history in this meditation on the seven phrases Jesus spoke from the cross.
Beginning with “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do” and ending with “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit,” Meacham captures for the reader how these words epitomize Jesus’s message of love, not hate; grace, not rage; and, rather than vengeance, extraordinary mercy. For each saying, Meacham composes an essay on the origins of Christianity and how Jesus’s final words created a foundation for oral and written traditions that upended the very order of the world.
Writing in a tone more intimate than any of his previous works, Jon Meacham returns us to the moment that transformed Jesus from a historical figure into the proclaimed Son of God, worshiped by billions.
Download the free Fable app

Stay organized
Keep track of what you’re reading, what you’ve finished, and what’s next.
Build a better TBR
Swipe, skip, and save with our smart list-building tool
Rate and review
Share your take with other readers with half stars, emojis, and tags
Curate your feed
Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communities20 Reviews
3.5

Becky
Created about 2 months agoShare
Report

Jacob Dunning
Created 3 months agoShare
Report

Chelsea
Created 11 months agoShare
Report

Michael Cuevas
Created over 1 year agoShare
Report

Wesley Stuart
Created over 1 year agoShare
Report
“Despite its elegant prose and high level of readability, I feel that “The Hope of Glory” falls flat in several ways. First, Meacham’s personal theological beliefs, which he references throughout the book, are not compatible with the topic that the book purports to be about. For instance, Meacham expresses how he is a Christian and a believer in Jesus while simultaneously stating how he also believes that Christianity is simply one mode among many of apprehending God. Unfortunately, you can’t have your cake and eat it too. Either you believe in Jesus, including his statement in John 14:6 that “None come to the Father except through me,” or you don’t. Spending a book discussing the beauty of the cross while simultaneously undermining its very purpose (creating a way for those who believe) is contradictory and frankly seems purposeless.
Further, though each chapter of the book is supposed to be about one of the last seven sayings of Jesus before his crucifixion, this is not really the case. Instead, Meacham quotes a Jesus saying at the beginning of each chapter and then the rest of the chapter is a quite loosely related tangent.
Meacham clearly has a lot of a wisdom to give which shines through at multiple points in the book. However, he undermines his own work by knocking its legs out from underneath it.”
About Jon Meacham
Jon Meacham is a Pulitzer Prize–winning biographer. The Carolyn T. and Robert M. Rogers Chair in the American Presidency and distinguished visiting professor at Vanderbilt University, Meacham was educated at The University of the South, is a former member of the vestries of St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue and of Trinity Church Wall Street, and was honored by the Anti-Defamation League with its Hubert H. Humphrey First Amendment Freedoms Prize. A fellow of the Society of American Historians, Meacham lives in Nashville with his wife and children.
Other books by Jon Meacham
Start a Book Club
Start a public or private book club with this book on the Fable app today!FAQ
Do I have to buy the ebook to participate in a book club?
Why can’t I buy the ebook on the app?
How is Fable’s reader different from Kindle?
Do you sell physical books too?
Are book clubs free to join on Fable?
How do I start a book club with this book on Fable?