Being True to Self: Looking for the Hope Within
Posted by tom | Jul 11, 2005Book review of Albert Delbanco's The Real American Dream: A Meditation on Hope. written as part of my Masters in Higher Education Degree Program at Geneva College.
According to legend, in the founding of the United States, hope came "through a Christian story that gave meaning to suffering and pleasure alike and promised deliverance from death" (Delbanco, 1999, 5). The Puritans represent a clear example of those who chose to live in "willing submission to the all-sufficient God of Genesis" (Delbanco, 1999, 19). They viewed human begins as "ragged and disordered, out of harmony with his fellows and with himself, unless and until God acts to make him acceptable to his sight" (Delbanco, 1999, 23). In the Puritan inspired culture, meaning came through understanding God's power, judgment, and leading of the saints.
