This book addresses both the possibility that hope offers and the capacity of hope to respond to the challenges that life presents to us all—whether confronted by natural disasters, terrorism, mass killings, or personal tragedy. What is particular to this book is that it offers a theology of hope. This means that this book defines hope in relation to the revelation of God in Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, that it locates hope in relation to faith and love, the three great pillars of the Christian life, and that it establishes a dialogue between the Christian tradition and the concrete circumstances of contemporary society in order to show the difference that hope can make.

The authors of the essays in this book, each a member of the faculty of the School of Theology and Ministry at Boston College, encompass the full range of theological disciplines: biblical studies, practical theology, liturgical theology, moral theology, historical theology, and systematic theology. As working theologians, the authors bring to this book a rich experience of involvement in the life of the church in the present-day world, as well as a deep familiarity with contemporary theology.

The purpose of this book has been to take us all on a journey toward a greater appreciation of God’s presence in our experience of hope. This book’s journey has been made up of four movements: Grounding, Nurturing, Sustaining, and Living Hope. Each chapter has reflected one of these various movements as an expression of the one invitation that comes to us from the Holy Spirit: to receive hope’s gift and choose hope’s path; to journey trusting in Jesus’ promise of life; to draw confidence from what sustains our hope, even as we must respond to what challenges it; and, finally, to live on confident in the ways that our hoped-for-future is present now, even though its fullness is still to come.
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