When I reached age 80, I decided that it was time to organize my thoughts about my life and my impending death. Jokingly, I had often described myself as a "Hopeful Agnostic." Now, I'm not certain that that is an accurate description. This book is my attempt to answer the age-old questions about life, death and the hereafter. I know full well that the answers may never be found, but the quest might lead to my peace of mind and more self-awareness. One can only hope.

When I reached age 80, I decided that it was time to organize my thoughts about my life and my impending death. Jokingly, I had often described myself as a "Hopeful Agnostic." Now, I'm not certain that that is an accurate description. This book is my attempt to answer the age-old questions about life, death and the hereafter. I know full well that the answers may never be found, but the quest might lead to my peace of mind and more self-awareness. One can only hope.

Written in a theopoetic key, this book challenges Christian reliance on the motif of promise, especially where promise is regarded as a prerequisite for the experience of hope. It pursues instead an unpromising hope available to the agnostic or belief-fluid members and leaders of faith communities. The book rejects any theological judgement about doubt and hopelessness being sinful. It also rejects any hope which is grounded in a sense of Christian supremacy. Chapter 1 focuses on Ernst Bloch's antifascist concept of utopian surplus, putting Bloch in conversation with queer theorist Jose Esteban Munoz and womanist theologian M. Shawn Copeland. Chapter 2 explores the saudadic and theopoetic hope of Rubem Alves. Chapter 3 turns to the womanist theologies of Delores Williams, Emilie Townes, and A. Elaine Brown Crawford. Finally, chapter 4 engages the post-colonial eschatology of Vitor Westhelle, framing hope as nearby in space, rather than nearby in time. Each chapter offers an unpromising hope that may be tapped into by those who wish to affirm belief-fluidity in their own communities, and by those who wish to speak of hope honestly, whether or not, at any given moment, they believe in God or in the promises of a god.

Nick Fiedler (of Nick and Josh Podcast fame) decided to travel the world for a year or so, and in the process of figuring out what to carry and what to throw out, heard a little voice telling him to set aside the faith of his childhood. So Nick changed his Facebook religion status from Christian to "Hopeful Skeptic" and set out to see where God would take him. If you find yourself asking nagging questions of the faith you were born into, put on your boots and take a little trip with Nick.

A Reluctant Agnostic is a story about sincere, humble, joyous Christianity confronted by contradictory natural evidence—a tale of religious conviction at odds with science. The author grew up in the very unique Old German Baptist Brethren Church, where he was immersed in wholehearted fundamental faith, and he shares details of the Brethren experience with an insider’s affection. Yet for all their distinctiveness, these plain-living people nevertheless embrace the