If there is a challenge weighted by more responsibility and beset by more uncertainty than that of world hunger, I am not aware of it. The possibilities of tragedy are so appalling, the political obstacles to solution so stubborn, the economic realities so complex, the future so unpredictable, and human moral potential so unpromising that one is tempted to put the tougher ethical questions aside and be content to preach the need for more charity. God knows we need more charity. But preaching charity does not finish the job of helping people understand their Christian obligation in the face of the world's hungry people. Meanwhile, we cannot achieve moral responsibility by demanding a better and simpler world in which to practice it. Nor can we wait with ethics until we are wise enough to do it well.

Behind William Hazlitt's eloquence there was certainly vision, and something like courage. For learning does imply, like making, a certain risk—or did. Besides springs and sun, the lurking adder, and there is something ambiguous and awesome about “the shadow of angelic wings.” A certain resolve is thus required if we are to step, in our imaginings, into Einstein's elevator, or test the possibility that we have been living in Plato's cave. It is symptomatic of our times that we feel we must repeat this, even a little insistently and dramatically—that thinking and learning and making, the pursuit of culture, is serious, dangerous business. I am inclined to say that heroism is involved here too, but recognizing that that may sound merely romantic, I settle for the moment on risk.

Faust tells his servant, Wagner, "The past, my friend, is a book with seven seals. What you call the spirit of the ages is in reality the spirit of the men in which the times are reflected." What is happening to Reformation historiography today in the light of new ideological commitments illustrates Faust's point.

The historical interpretation of the Protestant Reformation was, up until the nineteenth century, ordinarily based upon what has been called classical Protestant and Catholic scholarship. Roman Catholic scholarship regarded the Reformation as a great misfortune that destroyed Catholic civilization and ruptured European unity. Luther was a rebel who opened the door to the violent revolutions patterned after his own rebellious and irresponsible conduct.

The living God is active in current struggles to bring a Reign of Justice, Righteousness, Love, and Peace. The Judeo-Christian traditions are pertinent to the dilemmas of our world. All believers are called to preach the good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. Yet we are concerned about what we discern to be present trends in our churches, in religious thought, and in our society. We see struggles in every arena of human life, but in too many parts of the church and theology we find retreat from these struggles. Still, we are not without hope nor warrants for our hope.