What is the Difference Between Faith and Hope?

(In the spirit of the holidays ...)

Perhaps in everyday language very little. To say, I hope it will snow tomorrow, or, I have faith that it will snow tomorrow, will in neither case necessarily produce snow. But, oddly enough, I will feel, and seem to others, to be a bigger fool if I have expressed faith rather than hope, in the event that snow does not materialize. We could also say that hope is a wish, but faith is a belief; in fact, faith is often defined as a firm belief, or something a bit stronger than an ordinary belief.

Faith, it would seem, gains its major use in a religious context. To put our faith in God seems to be a stronger act than putting hope in God. In religious language faith seems to imply mystic connotations, whereas hope remains a more mundane expression. One example of the positive sense of faith, as opposed to the more neutral sense of hope, is seen in the statement, "I have faith in the fact that Jesus will one day return." To say, "I hope that it is a fact that Jesus will one day return," is obviously not the same statement.

Not only religious people but others can claim faith to be a greater certainty than hope by excluding a time limit. Much more confidence is placed in the statement, "I have great faith that the world will become a better place before I die," than, "I have great faith that the world will become a better place on Christmas Eve." But we could confidently say, "I hope that the world will become a better place before next Christmas," because there is no real commitment, it is just a hope. We could respond to someone who says, "I hope to win the lottery before long," by saying, "So do I." But we would hesitate to respond in the same way to someone who said that they had faith that they would win the lottery before long.

To sum up, hope and faith are two different concepts.

Happy holidays