What difference should the resurrection of the crucified Jesus make to Christian thought, to our sense of the cosmos, and our understanding of humanity itself? Despite the centrality of the resurrection in the New Testament and the Creed, the practical answer of many Christians might be: not much. In this light, Anthony Kelly sets out to affirm the resurrection as the living center of Christian life and the basis for its theological methods and themes. Without the resurrection, he writes, ""hope would be a repressive optimism, or an accommodation to routine despair."" Acknowledging that the resurrection, like a work of art, eludes any single point of view, Kelly shows why it remains the key to Gods relationship to Jesus and ourselves, the most critical horizon from which to grasp the meaning and pattern of life, and the basis of our ultimate hopes.