optimism or pessimism?

Here's a stray thought. It's effortless for me to think of ways that my life could be worse. Am I a pessimist, because of my inventiveness in imagining worse worlds? Or am I an optimist, because all those worlds are worse than the one I'm in? Or am I neither, because I believe that the world could be much worse but it could also be much better?

Like most other successful perspectives, Christianity presents a nuanced perspective on the question. It can't be exclusively pessimistic nor optimistic. First, some Christian ideas that lean toward pessimism:

• paradise is ruined
• God's just rule is deferred
• people in their natural state are depraved
• few are willing to love and obey God completely
• the moral law condemns

Second, some Christian ideas that lean toward optimism:

• paradise will be restored
• God's just rule is inevitable
• people infused with the Spirit are liberated from the control of sin
• anyone at any time can choose to repent
• the Atonement saves the condemned

Joy and Hope don't come from a blissful existence. Joy and Hope come from fixation on truths that are deeper than the imperfect details of the Fall.