In this book a distinguished historian, known especially for his work on the history of religion, diagnoses our contemporary confusion as a “crisis of hope". Many of the hopes that hitherto motivated western civilization have
been discredited and widely abandoned; more have been called into question; we are now generally uncertain as to what we hope, and this uncertainty accounts for many contradictions in our policies both at home and abroad. To clarify the problem, the author surveys both the role of hope in shaping history, and the many ways in which history has shaped hopes. The survey yields, finally, some indications not only of the sorts of things that may now be hoped for but also of the basic character and goals of hope.