God Has a Dream: A Vision of Hope for Our Time

Nobel Laureate Desmond Tutu has long been admired throughout the world for the heroism and grace he exhibited while encouraging countless South Africans in their struggle for human rights. In God Has a Dream, his most soul-searching book, he shares the spiritual message that guided him through those troubled times. Drawing on personal and historical examples, Archbishop Tutu reaches out to readers of all religious backgrounds, showing how individual and global suffering can be transformed into joy and redemption. With his characteristic humor, Tutu offers an extremely personal and liberating message. He helps us to “see with the eyes of the heart” and to cultivate the qualities of love, forgiveness, humility, generosity, and courage that we need to change ourselves and our world.

Echoing the words of Martin Luther King, Jr., he writes, “God says to you, ‘I have a dream. Please help me to realize it. It is a dream of a world whose ugliness and squalor and poverty, its war and hostility, its greed and harsh competitiveness, its alienation and disharmony are changed into their glorious counterparts. When there will be more laughter, joy, and peace, where there will be justice and goodness and compassion and love and caring and sharing. I have a dream that my children will know that they are members of one family, the human family, God’s family, my family.’”

Addressing the timeless and universal concerns all people share, God Has a Dream envisions a world transformed through hope and compassion, humility and kindness, understanding and forgiveness.

Intersperced in this delightful work are amazing nuggets of wisdom such as the insight that we expect that people act their very best naturally, which is why we are so deeply distressed when they do not. Among his large themes is the timely message that God loves us and our enemies equally. Though this idea can be hard to stomach in this age of perceived good vs. evil, it reminds us that unconditional love is the very essence of God.

I highly recommend the audio version of this work. It is a meassage that needs to be heard, again and again.


You don't have to be religious to enjoy this book   April 7, 2004
30 out of 30 found this review helpful

Watching a recent TV interview with Desmond Tutu, I become totally captivated by his personality, charisma and insight. I immediately bought this book in order to learn more about his experiences, personal views and life philosophy. This is the first time in my life that I buy a book in the Christianity section. I am not disappointed at all. The book is simple but very well written, incredibly comforting and truly inspirational on the future of the humankind. Take it as a religious book, a philosophical or an ethical essay: I believe that people of any religion, race and political background can enjoy the message of peace and hope of Desmond Tutu.


Essence of Tutu   April 4, 2004
Kerry Walters (Lewisburg, PA USA)
22 out of 24 found this review helpful

No one familiar with the writings of Archbishop Tutu will find anything new in this little book. Its value lies in the fact that it's a marvelous distillation of what Tutu has preached and practiced over his lifetime of reflection, prayer, and ministry. Accordingly, the book is a perfect primer for anyone new to Tutu. But it's also a convenient and eloquent summary for those who know and love his thought. For both audiences, the essays are perfect occasions for lectio divina.

Although the book's themes are ones that Tutu has worked and reworked for years now--the communitarianism of "ubuntu," the rainbow people of God, the value of redemptive suffering, the collaboration of God and the people of God, the importance of recognizing and accepting the astounding fact that God loves everyone equally and unconditionally, forgiveness and reconciliation--there is a clarity to their expression here that is really quite breath-taking. Tutu, like Henri Nouwen before him, has always had the ability to convey profound truths in simple, economic terms. But he's raised the art to its finest form in _God Has a Dream_. As a consequence, the careless reader might breeze through the volume without realizing its depth.

Let me recommend this book along with Michael Battle's wonderful recent book-length analysis of Tutu's theology of "ubuntu." Tutu has much to offer the twenty-first century, which already seems light years away from practicing the love that this South African archbishop preaches.


Relevant and valuable   March 24, 2004
S. R. Gelman (Los Angeles, CA USA)
21 out of 21 found this review helpful

It is nothing short of extraordinary that Nobel Peace Prize-winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu has managed to pack so much genuine spirituality, empathy, wisdom, humor and pragmatic advice into such a small, readable volume. His words just resonate, penetrating gently to the core, and his style is so friendly and self revealing, it feels like you are sitting around with a close friend, who happens to be exceptionally wise. There were many passages that were so powerful, so simply true, I had to stop reading and just take them in. He possess a remarkable perspective -- simultaneously visionary and practical, sweeping and intimate -- of the world and of humanity. I believe this book will speak to people of every religion, nationality, race and sexual orientation. This is a great gift from one of the world's greatest and most humble souls. In my view it is, perhaps, the most valuable and relevant spiritual book of our time.