Hopepunk: Stories of Faithful Resistance and Radical Hope
In an age marked by deep polarization, climate anxiety, systemic injustice, and institutional fatigue, it can feel easier to retreat into despair than to keep working for change. But hopepunk offers another way—a narrative posture rooted in fierce hope, moral courage, and the stubborn belief that goodness is worth fighting for.
Coined by writer Alexandra Rowland in 2017, hopepunk is a literary genre and cultural movement grounded in the idea that hope is not soft or sentimental but defiant. It tells stories of people who resist apathy and despair, who choose community over isolation, and who persist in loving the world—even when it’s broken. These aren’t stories of easy wins or naïve optimism. They are stories of grit, grace, and the costly work of healing and justice.
For ministry leaders and people of faith, hopepunk resonates deeply. In many ways, it mirrors the biblical call to be people of hope: to live as resurrection people in a Good Friday world, to love our neighbors as ourselves, and to seek the kingdom of God even when it feels far off. These stories offer more than escapism—they offer spiritual imagination. They help us reframe leadership as an act of discipleship: one rooted not in control, but in compassion; not in certainty, but in faithful persistence.
In this book club, we’ll read stories where resistance looks like community care, where healing begins with honest lament, and where leadership means showing up with integrity, humility, and heart. As we journey through these narratives together, we’ll reflect on the theological threads woven through them—hope as a spiritual discipline, love as a form of protest, and justice as an act of faith.
So come ready to read, wrestle, and be renewed. Because in a world that tells us to give up, we’re here to say: hope still matters. And it’s worth living for.
We hope you can join us.
HOW IT WORKS
- Each book has a specific date for discussion (see below). You can sign up for just one, but we think there is value to committing to the full story arc represented by all three.
- Each individual conversation has a $25 fee, or you can pay $60 for all three. The link to the registration form is below. If this is cost-prohibitive for you, please email ironsharpeningiron@ptsem.edu; limited scholarships are available.
- Participants are responsible for purchasing or checking out the books themselves. The two short stories are linked below.
featured authors and texts
A Psalm for the Wild Built by Becky Chambers
Book Club Conversation: June 17, 2025 — 12-1 pm ET
In A Psalm for the Wild-Built, Becky Chambers tells the story of Dex, a tea monk seeking purpose in a post-industrial world where robots have gained consciousness and chosen to leave human society. When Dex unexpectedly encounters a robot named Mosscap, the two embark on a quiet, philosophical journey exploring what it means to be alive, fulfilled, and connected. Through their conversations and wandering, Chambers invites readers into a world that prizes care, slowness, and mutual curiosity over productivity and perfection. The book offers a gentle yet profound meditation on restlessness, purpose, and the sacred in the everyday.
Participants will find rich inspiration here for reimagining vocation—not as a quest for impact but as a practice of presence and radical listening.
SHORT STORY SESSION
Book Club Conversation: July 17, 2025 — 12-1 pm ET
- “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” from Ursula K. LeGuin’s The Wind’s Twelve Quarters
Access the short story here.
This story presents a city whose beauty and harmony depend entirely on the misery of one imprisoned, suffering child. While most citizens accept this hidden cruelty as the price of their happiness, some choose to leave the city in silent protest. Le Guin forces readers to confront the ethical cost of comfort and whether walking away is a meaningful act or a quiet refusal to engage. - “The Ones Who Stay and Fight” from NK Jemisin’s How Long ‘Til Black Future Month
Access the short story here.
This story is set in the idealistic city of Um-Helat, a place rooted in justice, equity, and collective care. When harmful ideologies from outside threaten this balance, the people of Um-Helat don’t turn away—they stay, confront, and fight to protect their values. The story questions what it truly takes to sustain a utopia and whether violence or exclusion can ever be justified in the name of peace. Jemisin offers a vision of radical accountability and the moral weight of actively shaping a just society.
Both stories grapple with the moral burden of building and maintaining a just society—but where Omelas inspires passive withdrawal, Um-Helat demands courageous engagement. Readers will grapple with the question: When faced with injustice, do we walk away in sorrow or stay and fight with love, vision, and holy conviction for something better?
This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
Book Club Conversation: August 12, 2025 — 12-1 pm ET
In This Is How You Lose the Time War, two elite agents—Red and Blue—fight on opposite sides of a vast, time-traveling conflict that spans countless histories and futures. As they begin exchanging secret letters across enemy lines, what starts as taunting banter transforms into a deep, forbidden love. Their growing connection leads each to question the ideologies they serve, risking everything for the chance to choose relationship over allegiance. Through poetic prose and covert communion, Red and Blue rewrite not just timelines but themselves.
This story challenges us to ask: What if love is the most powerful act of resistance in a world obsessed with winning?
