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3.5 

The Hope of Glory

By Jon Meacham
The Hope of Glory by Jon Meacham digital book - Fable

Publisher 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.

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20 Reviews

3.5
Expressionless Face“I looked forward to reading this book and was intrigued by the approach to Christ’s last words on the cross. However, I’m not even sure if Meacham believes Jesus even said these words. Granted, he prefaces that while Jesus may not have said these words exactly, he is analyzing what the authors of the gospel wrote. In spite of this, I feel like each bit of analysis is back tracked with skepticism or denial, or is timid to make any declaration of faith. After all, faith has just as much validity as its antithesis. Overall, this book was very unconvincing of its thesis and lacked any great substance. While I respect Meacham’s historical approach, I was hoping for more “faith” from someone who claims to be a believer.”
“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.

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