New Birth uses the metaphor of Church as Family of God as a countervailing and transforming imagery in its various considerations. Inspired by the sense of life's itinerary--together with its triumphs and startling reversals and its unexpected twists and turns--New Birth sees hope, amidst social darkness and an ethos of selfishness, as interior to God's purposes for human wellbeing. Within this perspective, New Birth further recognizes that the risks always remain, that believers can distort true hope in this world and fail to love according to the spirit of the Gospel. Admittedly, when we as...