This book charts a course through the equally inadequate options of despair and optimism to a responsible understanding and practice of Christian hope. ""A wonderful theological meditation on hope--a virtue so necessary for ethical commitment and change This book is a gift to all who struggle to create and maintain hope in the face of suffering, disappointment, and social injustice. Ellen Ott Marshall names honestly the many sources of human pain. Yet she weaves an eloquent Christian response from contemporary and traditional theologies and her own experience, lifting up hopeful practices of...

This book calls Christians to resist meanness, divisiveness, and dogmatism in the public square by enacting love, attending to moral ambiguity, and practicing theological humility - in other words, to transform politics by refusing to play politics. Ellen Ott Marshall is Associate Professor of Christian Ethics and Conflict Transformation at Candler School of Theology, Emory University.