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Hope and Other Superpowers

A Life-Affirming, Love-Defending, Butt-Kicking, World-Saving Manifesto

About The Book

Overwhelmed by the news cycle and the state of affairs in our world? Pastor, blogger, and powerful voice in the Resistance, John Pavlovitz has the answer: this rousing and inspirational guide, drawing from lessons of our favorite superheroes, for how we can band together, live more heroically (and meaningfully), and save the world.

It’s exhausting to give a damn these days, isn’t it? Perhaps you’re feeling anguished about what you see on the news or in your social media timeline, or by your personal circumstances, and are paralyzed waiting for political or religious leaders, or celebrities, to rescue us from it all.

But what if you didn’t have to wait for someone else?

What if you could be the hero?

This book—a spirited call to action—shows you how.

In these pages, John offers a path away from the vitriol and toward com­passion, and a plan to transform our burdens into dreams and our outrage into activism. Drawing from lessons of beloved fictional superheroes, John shows us how to identify our origin story, build protective suits of armor, guard against our personal kryptonite, and vanquish our villains. He also identifies ten specific “superpowers” that we can enlist to make our lives and our world better. Along the way, he shares inspiring anecdotes and profiles about ordinary people who saw a gap in the world in empathy or kindness or gratitude and decided to fill it.

Hope and Other Superpowers is an invitation to anyone hoping to be the kind of person the world so desperately needs—the kind who can save it. In other words: it’s an invitation to you.

About The Author

John Pavlovitz is a pastor and blogger from Wake Forest, North Carolina. In the past two years his blog, Stuff That Needs To Be Said, has reached a diverse audience of millions of people throughout the world, with an average monthly readership of over a million people. His home church, North Raleigh Community Church, is a growing, nontraditional Christian community dedicated to radical hospitality, mutual respect, and diversity of doctrine. John is a regular contributor to Huffington Post, Relevant Magazine, Scary Mommy, ChurchLeaders.com, and The Good Men Project.

Product Details

  • Publisher: Simon & Schuster (November 6, 2018)
  • Length: 256 pages
  • ISBN13: 9781501179662

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Raves and Reviews

“Pavlovitz asserts this is not a self-help book. Instead, “it’s a life-affirming, love-defending, butt-kicking manifesto.” Well, yes, but it’s also a 241-page pep talk with, as a leitmotif, generous references to superheroes whose character traits and powers epitomize those the author espouses. The result is high-energy, even perfervid...As for those superhero character traits, Pavlovitz writes eloquently about sacrifice, courage, humor...and more.” Booklist

“More so than any other book on modern social and political activism, Hope and Other Superpowers should be required reading for anyone who wants to work against prejudice, hatred, and despair.” —Donovan's Literary Services

"[Pavlovitz] despairs about the state of the world and the values of the leaders tasked with repairing it. But he holds tightly to hope, and his new book is an impassioned plea for his followers to do the same." —Chicago Tribune

“In this enjoyable book…Pavlovitz’s honest examination of his own shortcomings is refreshing and reassures readers that mistakes and vulnerabilities can be seen as opportunities for positive transformation...Readers looking to channel distress into self-betterment will definitely want to pick this up.” —Publishers Weekly

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