The Victory of God: Summary, part 1

In the cross of Jesus Christ, and in his resurrection, we find in history – in the real world – exactly the kind of event that would vindicate the undying seed of hope – hope even in a world filled with sorrow and suffering – that burns deep within us. The Christian Story in turn explains this sense of hope that is a part of human nature. Overflowing from the being of God is a creation filled with “little gods” – creatures made in his image and designed with an ability to perceive his ways. It is in the Story of the One in whose image we are made that we find the reality that is reflected in our own intuitions of hope and stories of good and evil. Alongside the seed of hope there is a longing in our hearts for great stories to be true, for beautiful worlds to be real places. And the eucatastrophic story that, if we saw it fully for what it is, we would long for it to be true more than for any other story – this Story is true, in Christ.

But we cannot arrive at the glory of the Happy Ending, Tolkien’s Eucatastrophe, without passing through the whole story, and the valley of pain and sorrow that precedes the final joy. Imagine watching the end of one of your favorite movies without watching the sad events that came before. The happy ending would lose its meaning – it needs the whole story, with all its elements, to make sense.