Engaging God's World: Chapter 1

The first chapter of Cornelius Plantinga's book, Engaging God's World, is titled Longing ad Hope. there are three sections in this chapter; longing, hope, and shalom. In the first section Plantinga talks about our longings as humans and how they are never fully satisfied. We have longings for many little things in life but behind every little longing lies our true longing which is for God. "But, if they come, they will not fill all our niches because we want more than these things can give." We may fulfill some of our longings in life, such as finding a job, and these accomplishments will make us feel satisfied at first but in time that satisfaction and joy will die out because our true longing is for God and only through him can we find true joy. The second section is about hope and how longings are a part of our hopes and dreams. I think of hopes as more specific longings or for things that are more realistic. A couple examples are: you long for a job and hope for a specific job that you prefer; if you are in a difficult time in you life you may long to go back to the times when you were a child and everything was so simple, while you hope that you will be able to make it through the difficulties quickly. The last section is about shalom and how we should hope and long for it. When translated into English, shalom means peace but its actual meaning is much greater than that. "In the Bible, shalom means universal flourishing, wholeness, and delight - a rich state of affairs in which natural needs are satisfied and natural gifts fruitfully employed, all under the arch of God's love. Shalom, in other words, is the way things are supposed to be." Naturally as humans we long for shalom because we love God's creation and we long for it to be perfect. This longing is good and it is given to us by God. Longing for shalom brings us to God because it is a longing for perfection and God is the only perfection that exists.