Faith becomes the one wholly inflexible ground for resistance to violence, precisely because it teaches us how to face death—not in excited expectation of reward, but in the sober letting-go of our fantasies in the sure hope that a faithful God holds us firmly in life and death alike.

This is the hope that allows us to recognize power for what it is and what it isn’t: As what is given us for the setting-free of each other, not as the satisfying of our passion for control.