of Jesus Christ and his future, which is the world’s future only because it is first of all the future of the world’s Messiah. This not only inspires Christians to join with others in pursuing present possibilities of change that correspond to the coming kingdom. It also gives Christian hope a critical potential, especially when it is remembered that the resurrection gave new life to the crucified Christ, the one who in his abandoned death was identified with the most wretched and the most hopeless.