A Lively Hope: The Suffering, Death, Resurrection, and Exaltation of Jesus Christ

by Richard Neitzel Holzapfel

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• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1570085625
• ISBN13: 9781570085628
• Release Date: January 1999
• Publisher: Not Avail
• Length: 214 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Reflections by a respected LDS Historian

A Lively Hope reads like an engaging reference, or a history-laced meditation, on the suffering (and exaltation) of Christ. Holzapfel tackles each of the four Evangelists' approach to the passion narratives separately, and highlights the unique perspectives and contributions of each Gospel. Interspersed are historical tidbits (crediting Harper's magazine for coining the phrase "doubting Thomas" (p.179), for example), details one might find in a gazetteer of Christian Jerusalem, and personal reflections. Almost every paragraph has an endnote, and Holzapfel quotes eminent New Testament scholars (LDS and non-) left and right, making this a great springboard for further historical/contextual study of the Gospels (without fear of straying too far into the more critical scholarship). I came away from A Lively Hope with mixed feelings. I would heartily recommend this book to any of my LDS friends with a love for history. I feel that the work was rushed, or incomplete, however. I wish that Holzapfel had spent more time on synthesis and wrapping up each section, tying together the myriad lovingly gathered details into pithy reflections that are to me a Holzapfel trademark.