Hope and Heaven - or Heaven as Hope

Christianity cannot exist!  Or so suggests John Caputo in "What would Jesus Deconstruct", a book I have recently reviewed here.  One of the ideas in the book is that some things are never realised under the existing conditions.  Caputo explains that in some rabbinic traditions the Messiah never turns up, but instead is a name for hope and expectation.  He goes on to point out that, having received a Messiah, Christianity is now awaiting the Second Coming.

This set me thinking about the need for hope, not just religious hope, but hope in life generally.  Victor Frankl wrote about "Mans Search for Meaning" and suggested that all manner of persecution can be endured if there is an understanding of meaning.
I think that I want to see that as an expression of hope, so...  Heaven could be seen as an expression of future hope, and what more natural  way of expressing that in the culture and time in which it was first expressed.  Now that we are not sure where Heaven is (having travelled above the sky) I find this a helpful way to think about it.  Of course as a post modern, I don't think that you have to!

And finally...  This post reminded me John Cleese in Clockwise, couldn't find the clip, but the quote is:

"It's not the despair, Laura. I can stand the despair. It's the hope"

Even though it completely contradicts the post J