Hope does not receive its energy from the immanence of the self. It does not have its centre in the self. Rather, the hopeful are on their way towards the other. In hope, one places one’s trust in what exceeds the self. Hope therefore approximates faith. It is the authority of the other as a transcendence that raises me up in the face of absolute despair, that enables me to stand in the abyss. The hopeful do not owe their standing to themselves. That is why Havel believes that hope originates in the transcendent – that it comes from the distance.
