Book excerpt: Is there any relation between the Christian hope and human hopes and aspirations? Does the wish for a better life have no relation to the salvation God offers to all people? This book attempts to address these questions as a whole by way of an essay in biblical theology. It seeks to respond to the fundamental issue: what is the biblical view of God's mission in the world? It may be that Scripture approached on its own terms, without some preconception about what Òthe church has always believed about evangelism,Ó will clarify the issues. For in Scripture God is obviously interested in the whole person, embedded as he or she is in the whole of creation and inserted in a particular history.