More recent and disturbing history will be reviewed this week by a court in Oslo. While Anders Behring Breivik will present his own warped view of reality, victims and bereaved families will confront again the terror of what actually happened. To resist simple vengeance, pursue justice and to relive the pain is a brave thing to do and shows in the words of the commentator Libby Purves that "the default setting of Western civilisation is not hatred or fear but hope".Perhaps, part of that default setting of hope stems from our Judaeo-Christian history. The last steel ingot from the Consett steelworks was made into a cross and is kept at a local Roman Catholic Church. It represents for me the pain of the past but also hope for the future.It is tempting to despair for the future of the world, in a time of financial insecurity and mindless terrorism. Yet history does remind me that human communities of justice and love still triumph.