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 compassion, resistance, and conversion that support the common good."" --Lisa Cahill, J. Donald Monan Professor, Boston College ""This study of hope glows with wisdom and compassion. Through conversation and metaphor, public events and personal experience, Ellen Ott Marshall leads us into the intricate structure of hope. Simultaneously fragile and strong, hope guides us as we navigate the great contrarieties of human existence--peril and promise, goodness and cruelty, beauty and tragedy. Not incidental to the brilliance of this book is Marshall's distinctive redefinition of hope in terms of a relational understanding of God's continuous interaction with history. This book is an impressive contribution to theological ethics."" --Mariorie Hewitt Suchocki, author of Divinity and Diversity: A Christian Affirmation of Religious Pluralism Ellen Ott Marshall is Associate Professor of Christian Ethics and Conflict Transformation at Candler School of Theology, Emory University.