Hope

A dove carrying an olive branch is a symbol of hope, peace, and renewal. The image appears in the Bible and in Christian art and iconography.

Hope is the confident desire of attaining a difficult good in the future. Hope includes a willingness to engage in effort to overcome any obstacles to the goal. Hope is also an expression of wishful thinking, as for example to say, "I hope that __(a desired outcome will be realized)__." Hope is generally an outgrowth of the optimism that expects good in general, or the reasonable expectation that a particular kind of good very possibly might come, given the right circumstances, but without any absolute guarantee that it will be so.

Practical hope is the purity of unconditional optimism which has been prudently conditioned by the practical experience of ordinary occasions of disappointment or frustration, temporary set-backs, which do not actually destroy all hope, but only diminish its intensity to some lesser or greater degree. Hope then becomes the reasonable expectation that the looked-for goal just might possibly be attained, and that it is, after all, not entirely a complete impossibility. Hope sees no real reason to believe that it can't happen, and every reason to expect that it probably will. Hope does not give up, and never quits.

What is called a "fond hope" is an illusion or delusion, rooted in a fanciful denial of reality often based on stubborn personal pride and vanity, wishful thinking that an impossible expectation will be completely fulfilled without any realistic reason or possibility of ever being realized, inevitably ending only in total disappointment.

The opposite of hope is despair.

Hope in Christianity

In Christian thought, hope is one of the three divine virtues identified by St Paul (along with faith and love). It should be noted that the original Greek word used by Paul can be translated both as "hope" and "expectation". Hope as a virtue means something stronger than a simple desire that something will happen: it also requires confidence or faith that it will come to pass (consider the phrase "sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life" from the funeral liturgy). Christian hope is the assured and confident expectation of good guaranteed by the unbreakable promises of God through the Lord Jesus Christ.

Bible verses on hope

• Hope Bible Verses, BibleStudyTools.org
• 32 Bible Verses About Hope, Christian.net
• 8 Uplifting Bible Verses: How to Increase Your Hope
• 24 Bible Verses About Hope to Light Your Path

Growing in hope

• Growing in hope
• Building Blocks of Biblical Hope
• CHRISTIAN LIVING: Biblical Hope for a Bright Future, Christian Publishing House
• 5 Powerful Lessons in One Bible Verse to Raise Your Hope Level in Minutes

Hope and psychology

The half a glass of water helps illustrates of two different mental attitudes, optimism (half full) and pessimism (half empty)

See also: Optimism and Goal setting and Agency (psychology) and Psychological capital

"In psychology, hope and optimism, while often used interchangeably, represent distinct concepts. Optimism is a general expectation of positive future outcomes, while hope is a more active process focused on achieving specific goals through personal agency and pathways. Essentially, optimism is about believing things will generally turn out well, while hope is about believing one can take actions to make things better, even if the overall outcome is uncertain.

Articles on hope vs. optimism:

• What's the Difference Between Optimism and Hope? by Utpal Dholakia Ph.D.
• The Difference Between Hope and Optimism by Arthur C. Brooks, 2021
• The Crucial, Empowering Difference Between Hope and Optimism
• Hope and optimism, John Templeton Foundation

Articles on hope:

• Why Is Hope So Important?, PsychCentral
• The Psychology of Hope by Camille Preston Ph.D.
• What is Hope in Psychology + 7 Exercises & Worksheets by Elaine Houston, B.Sc.
• Hope: A research-based explainer

Book: Hope and psychology

• Psychology of Hope: You Can Get Here from There by C.R. R. Snyder. Free Press. April 1, 2003

External links

• Study Love: Hopeth All Things, an analytical outline on "hopeth all things" (πάντα ἐλπίζει) in 1 Cor. 13:7.