ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces hope, based on the work of Jonathan Sacks, as a possible alternative to pessimism and optimism in dealing with radical uncertainty in climate change. Sacks’ understanding of hope can be seen as an account of the good life, a renewed way of doing theology. Understood in this way, hope highlights key assumptions for addressing radical uncertainty: (1) emunah (a type of trust), (2) chessed (a type of love, including the covenant), and (3) change of identity (including the Sabbath). The chapter brings in Wentzel van Huyssteen’s postfoundational approach to explore the relevance of an interdisciplinary conversation between theology and economics for a social response to radical uncertainty in the context of climate change.
