Contents
1. Faith and the future -- pg.1
2. The mystery of man -- pg.28
3. The future of Piety -- pg.40
4. The Church and the Claims of the Future -- pg.52
5. The Priest’s Nature and Mission: Thoughts on the future of the Priestly Ministry -- pg.64
6. The Power of Christian Love to Transform the World: The Relationship between Christianity and Society -- pg.86
7. The Theological Problem of Evil -- pg.109
Notes -- pg.135

In the changing situations of history Christians are called upon to give a public account of the hope that is in them. In Faith and the Future noted theologian Walter Kasper addresses himself to just such an account for the 1980s, a decade characterized not by the utopian ideas of evolutionary and revolutionary progress of the sixties and early seventies but by an increasing fear of the future—fear, despair, and the loss of hope. Christians and the churches are ill-advised to pretend that the powers of evil are innocuous or to try to dispute them out of existence. Rather, suggests the author, they must look on the powers of evil realistically and without fear, pointing to the one foundation that God has provided in Jesus Christ and witnessing to the future on the basis of their hope.
Among the topics discussed are Faith and the Future, the Future of Piety, the Church and the Claims of the Future, the Power of Christian Love to transform the World, the Theological Problem of Evil, the Mystery of Man, and the Priest’s Nature and Mission.