We can make a distinction between asserted hope and enacted hope. Asserted hope is a hangover from the power ridden days of Christendom. Asserted hope relies on traditional authority or fluent rhetoric. It involves one party asserting or declaiming "In God we Trust" or "In Jesus there is salvation" or "Jesus is Lord." Asserted hope is not wrong or misleading.
The problem is that for more and more people it is unconvincing. Asserted hope in difficult times also carries a risk because it is the tool of fascist leaders; it is the resource drawn on in totalitarian environments. In worrisome times Homo-sapiens is prone to be gullible and prone to wish fulfilment, desirous of protection from those who use their capacity for asserting hope as a route to power.
The story of Apollo 13 is a story of enacted hope. Had mission control asserted hope, rather than worked with the crew to identify a series of actions, the spacecraft and the lives of the crew would have been lost.
Enacted hope is hope that is accompanied by action. Enacted hope is tangible because it involves micro-actions which might on the first view seem insignificant. Enacted hope is at work in the story of the woman at the well, Her encounter with Jesus shows how micro actions contribute to enacted hope.
From "Bothered and Bewildered" by Ann Morisy p 34
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