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Title: HOPE: Rev Dr Norman Shanks

Reference number: 13697

Date: 2016

Director: d. Yushin Toda

Production company: Japan Desk Scotland

Sound: sound

Original format: unknown

Colour: col

Fiction: non-fiction

Running time: 14.06 mins

Description: Rev. Dr. Norman Shanks discusses the concept and meaning of hope from a religious perspective.

Credits: p. Fumi Nakabachi and Yushin Toda, Japan Desk Scotland
ph. Yushin Toda
ed. Yushin Toda

Shotlist: Filmmaker's synopsis:

“People just use the word ‘hope’ as an alternative to optimism…But ‘hope’ really understood is more focused, something more than being optimistic…If you take a stage further, hope can be seen and can be understood as having significance for oneself that one is hoping to do something, to get involved in something, to make a plan for something… From the Christian perspective, there’s a deeper dimension… God’s promise of new life… a promise that things can be different. Another world is possible… From a Christian perspective, hope is bound up with faith and love….”

Rev Dr Norman Shanks, a retired Church of Scotland minister and the former leader of the Iona Community, poses a question: “How can one be hopeful in the middle of adversity, when things are going really badly?” He concludes his talk by referring to the myth of Pandora’s box. When the box was opened, all the bad things came out, leaving hope. What does this imply?