Pope Issues Encyclical "In Hope We Were Saved"

On Friday, Pope Benedict XVI issued the second encyclical of his papacy, titled Spe Salvi Facti Sumus (In Hope We Were Saved). Today's New York Times says that the document "weaves a complex but elegant argument for the necessity of hope, drawing deeply on history, philosophy and theology." Here are some excerpts on the relationship of hope to the structuring of society:

[E]very generation has the task of engaging anew in the arduous search for the right way to order human affairs; this task is never simply completed. Yet every generation must also make its own contribution to establishing convincing structures of freedom and of good, which can help the following generation as a guideline for the proper use of human freedom.... [M]odern Christianity, faced with the successes of science in progressively structuring the world, has to a large extent restricted its attention to the individual and his salvation. In so doing it has limited the horizon of its hope and has failed to recognize sufficiently the greatness of its task—even if it has continued to achieve great things in the formation of man and in care for the weak and the suffering....

All serious and upright human conduct is hope in action.... [W]e work towards a brighter and more humane world so as to open doors into the future. Yet our daily efforts in pursuing our own lives and in working for the world's future either tire us or turn into fanaticism, unless we are enlightened by the radiance of the great hope that cannot be destroyed even by small-scale failures or by a breakdown in matters of historic importance. If we cannot hope for more than is effectively attainable at any given time, or more than is promised by political or economic authorities, our lives will soon be without hope....

To protest against God in the name of justice is not helpful. A world without God is a world without hope.... Only God can create justice. And faith gives us the certainty that he does so. The image of the Last Judgement is not primarily an image of terror, but an image of hope; for us it may even be the decisive image of hope....