Summary
Francis Spufford says that far more can be mended than you know.
Transcript
When I said that far more can be mended than you know is near the heart of Christianity I meant that double combination of optimism and pessimism together. I meant that it tells you things need mending but it also tells you that there is a scope for upturns, happy endings, unexpected arrivals of your long-lost uncle who wants to make you a millionaire. That the story, because it’s got grace in it, that the supply of hope and consolation and new beginnings in the world is not limited by human beings’ own capacity to generate those things, that people get tired and weary and exhausted, nobody can love everybody or love their neighbour as themselves, but we aren’t left on our own to do it and there is a power of mending out there which offers us hope and consolation we don’t have to be able not to do ourselves. Christianity respects your autonomy and then comes to the rescue as well.
