I live in Rome, but it takes an American back in the States to let me know that the Pope has released his latest encyclical. (Thanks, Thom.) Spe salvi - On Christian Hope was published today on the Vatican website.
“SPE SALVI facti sumus”—in hope we were saved, says Saint Paul to the Romans, and likewise to us (Rom 8:24). According to the Christian faith, “redemption”— salvation — is not simply a given. Redemption is offered to us in the sense that we have been given hope, trustworthy hope, by virtue of which we can face our present: the present, even if it is arduous, can be lived and accepted if it leads towards a goal, if we can be sure of this goal, and if this goal is great enough to justify the effort of the journey. Now the question immediately arises: what sort of hope could ever justify the statement that, on the basis of that hope and simply because it exists, we are redeemed? And what sort of certainty is involved here?
No small questions, those! This is the first paragraph; I'm looking forward to reading the rest. From the sparse sentences on Thom's blog, it sounds like atheism is one of the main things the Holy Father is addressing - timely, considering the spate of atheists hitting the presses lately: Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, and other more scholarly types.
Enjoy, and happy Feast of St. Andrew (especially to those of you with Scotland in your veins . . . or last names...)!
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