Pamela by Samuel Richardson

Pamela by Samuel Richardson

A world lacking transcendence is a world lacking hope-a world locked in the despair of utter immanence. Humans cannot long endure despair, and so they contrive false substitutes for hope. But these always disappoint. This book first explores the despair that follows from radical immanence, then the manifold false and flailing attempts to provide hope, and then, finally, hope in its fullness. It is a troubling tale of malaise and feverish attempts to conjure alternatives, especially through political rationalism, humanitarianism, and faux enchantment. But, after looking despair full in the face, Lost in the Chaos also offers us a dynamic ontology, a cognitional theory, and the virtue of hope itself. Yes, ours is in many ways a hopeless age, but in the end this hopelessness is a call to renewed hope, which has never truly been lost.