Hope:
Psychology and Theology
in conversation
Leisa Aitken
To acknowledge..
Supervisors
• Associate Professor Tony Grant: University of
Sydney
• Rev Dr Joanna Collicutt: University of Oxford;
Ripon Anglican College, Oxford
Isaiah 65
Behold, I create new heavens
and a new earth…
I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people;
no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping
and the cry of distress.
They shall build houses and inhabit them;
they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
For like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be,
and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands.
Adult Hope Scale
• Agency / Will
I energetically pursue my goals.
My past experiences have prepared me well for my future.
I meet the goals that I set for myself.
I’ve been pretty successful in life.
• Pathways / Ways
I can think of many ways to get out of a jam.
I can think of many ways to get the things in life that are
important to me.
There are lots of ways around any problem.
Even when others get discouraged, I know I can find a way to
solve the problem.
Snyder, C. R., Harris, C., Anderson, J. R., Holleran, S. A., Irving, L. M., Sigmon, S. T., et al.(1991). The will and the ways:
Development and validation of an individual-differences measure of hope. Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, 60, 570-585.
Grounded research
Rules of Hope (Averill, Catlin & Chon, 1990)
• Possible but uncertain
• Noble / socially acceptable
• Deeply meaningful
• Incline you to act if possible
Summary of grounded research/
hope in the lexicon
• A state focused on a positive future involving
emotional, cognitive and motivational aspects
• which emerges in a context of difficulty,
• to incline one to action if possible
• towards highly valued, moral, realistic goals
• which are uncertain to occur where there may be a
lack of complete personal agency
In contrast, because the God we know in Jesus is
the God of utterly generous, outflowing love, I
believe that there will be no end to the new
creation of this God, and that within the new
age itself there will always be more to hope for,
more to work for, more to celebrate.
Learning to hope in the present time is learning
not just to hope for a better place, but learning
to trust the God who is and will remain the God
of the future.” NT Wright
Theology of Hope
• Jurgen Moltmann.
• Eschatology matters…
– Apocalyptic: the struggle
– Separatist: retreat
– Transformative: “From first to last and not merely
in epilogue, Christianity is eschatology, is hope,
forward looking and forward moving and
therefore revolutionizing and transforming the
present”
HOPE
Glimpses 
Emotion
Meaningful narrative
that sees possibilities
Agency
1. Poised
2. External
Possibilities? Amygdala V
Frontal Lobe
Activities to increase Hope?
• Relationships: Talk to friends or family,
altruistic activities
• Spiritual activities: pray, read scriptures,
meditate
• Stress reducing and coping activities,
especially exercise, meditation and enjoyable
hobbies
• Inner work: positive self talk, reflect on what I
look forward to
“It is only by means of narrative that hope is experienced in
the first place …for the experience of hope has a narrative
structure build right into it. When people hope they lay a
story arc over a certain span of history, one that offers the
limitations of the present, offers a vision of how those
limitations may be overcome and furnishes grounds for
expecting that the future will be realized.”
Andrew Greeley
“Meaningful thought allows people to think about past,
future, and spatially distant realities, and indeed even
possibilities. Meaningfulness may therefore often involve
understanding one’s life beyond the here and now,
integrating future and past”
Baumeister, Vohs, Aaker & Garbinsky, 2013
Glimpses of hope
Poised/ coping/latent/potential?
Tertullian: Patience with the lamp lit
Hope is always a tense expectation and rouses the
attentiveness of our senses so we can grasp the
chances of things hoped for, wherever and
whenever they present themselves. Jurgen Moltmann
Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and
being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the
grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of
Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 1:13
My research
• Activities to increase hope?
– Relationships: Talk to friends or family, altruistic activities
– Spiritual activities- pray, read scriptures, meditate
– Stress reducing and coping activities, especially exercise,
meditation and enjoyable hobbies
– Inner work- positive self talk, reflect on what I look forward to
• Cognitions to increase hope?
– Reflect on supportive relationships eg. how others have coped
– Worldview: “There must be a bigger sense of something” “How
I fit into God’s plan”
– Goals and plans / What I can look forward to / visualising this
External Agency
• 1. God
– Psalms: “My hope is in you..”
– Spiritual forces / happen for a reason
• 2. Others
– Your surgeon, workmates, family
• 3. Communal
– To borrow hope/ hold hope for others..
Summary
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
A new view of Heaven
Psychology: science and the humanities
Adult Hope Scale- Will and Ways
Delbanco: God – Nation - Self
Faith, Hope and Love
Grounded Psychology research
Hope as a common grace
– Hope- before the fall and in heaven
– Default network and Mind wandering
• Moltmann- eschatology impacts now
Proposed Conceptualisation
• 1. A narrative that sees a future of meaningful possibilities
– Stress and amygdala
– Meaning- narrative identity/ life story
– Past present future research
• 2. Glimpses which evoke emotion
– Having eyes to see
– Intentionally imagining (Oettingen)
• 3. Agency
– Poised to act = coping now
– External
• God
• Others
• communally