Joseph Donnelly

Towards a Journey of Hope for Students in Dublin's Inner City: a Proposal for Applying Christian Hope to a 21st Century Irish Urban Context Joseph Donnelly

The twentieth century saw the rediscovery of the centrality of eschatology in the message of Jesus and the early Church. After many generations of apparent neglect several evangelical theologians continue in their attempts to bring Christian hope in from the sidelines of scholarly debate. With the passing of the modern era and the emergence of a subsequent postmodern culture, an opportunity exists for Christian hope to be articulated with a fresh vitality. This project is an attempt to research Christian hope from both an eschatological or ?other-worldly? perspective as well as from a present day or ?this-worldly? perspective, to see if a praxis of Christian hope could be developed and how it might look in an Irish urban context. Using a case study approach, the necessary fieldwork was engaged in to help determine whether resistance or support would be encountered for this proposed praxis of Christian hope. The outcome of this research should help to clarify something of the nature of Christian hope and its potential for shaping a praxis both, in contemporary Ireland and beyond.