Reclaiming Hope

Short Review: This is part memoir, part history of the Obama presidency, part policy exploration and part political theology. Overall I think it was well balanced, readable and worth paying attention to. Hope, although tinged with realism, is throughout the book and that is not incidental. Wear has real hope that politics is not completely lost. He has hope that Christians can be engaged without being inappropriately partisan or by ignoring our faith. But he is realist enough to see that simply being a person of faith isn't enough. Part of what has happened is that the GOP became the faith party and Democrats abandoned faith as a core component. That has left Christians in GOP less able to make a difference because GOP views Christians as a group that will always be with them (Trump's election confirmed that.) And Democrats have been weakened by not understanding many religious issues because too many of the policy staff are just ignorant of religious issues. Wear makes the argument that we need people of faith on all sides of politics and that all sides of politics needs to be open to hearing, and being changed by, political conscious of faith.

My full review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/reclaiming-hope/