P. Laín Entralgo e la letteratura riflessiva: La espera y la esperanza

The author analyzes the opera La espera y la esperanza (1956) by the Spanish author Pedro Lain Entralgo (1908-2001), one of J. Ortega y Gasset’s and X. Zubiri’s students. For Entralgo, hope is a fundamental characteristic of human ontology: it is one of the habits which determine and form human existence. Entralgo’s work focuses on five questions (1. What did men hope throughout history? 2. How did men hope what they really hoped? 3. How did men understand their own hope and human hope in general? 4. How is hope conceived by nowadays man? 5. What is human hope in itself?) that we can answer through a historical-philological perspective which can draw attention to the change introduced in history by the Christian concept of hope. The reasons why a Christian feels that he has to hope are the undeniable loyalty of God towards his promises and the supreme goodness of the reality we hope. God, then, is the highest truth and that is why we believe in what he promises. However, it is the faith the requirement of what we hope for; it is the faith indeed which convinces Christians of the reality of what we hope for and the possibility of reaching it at the end of our life.