How do we have hope in amongst worsening reports of global warming, species loss and natural disasters? O’neil Van Horn, describing himself as a hopeful nihilist, argues that while there may be little reason for feeling hopeful, the real challenge of hope is to create it through the actions of our lives. He says, “Hope is not something we have so much as something we make.” His book, Making Hope: Practices, Prayers and Parables for a Changing Climate, explores how slow, still, and often quiet practices can cultivate hope for ourselves, each other, and our planetary home. In this conversation, Dom and Sue talk with O’neil about how we can make and enact hope but also explore the nature of a God who is not a big other with the future defined and a rule book to follow, but the relational ground of being drawing us into living hope together in relationships of love and justice.

O’neil is a teacher, author and creative based in Xavier University in Ohio, US. He holds a phd in philosophical and theological studies in religion.