John R. Claypool was a pastor, preacher, author, and theologian. He was initially ordained as a Southern Baptist and pastored for thirty years in that denomination. He became an Episcopal priest in 1986 and served as rector of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Birmingham, Alabama, until his retirement in 2000. Though he died in 2005, his words continue to provide hope and comfort.
The Hopeful Heart is a personal testimony, by one of the church's most inspirational story tellers, to his experiences with hope. It is an insightful meditative resource. - John Westerhoff, author of Will Our Children Have Faith? John Claypool has been one of the great preaching voices of the past thirty years. A new book from him is always a welcomed event, and his wide and ever-growing audience will be deepened by what he now has to say. Claypool on hope could not be a better antidote to these dark days. - Peter J. Gomes, author of The Good Book When you get a chance to hear John Claypool preach, you go. And when you get a chance to sit with him, you sit. Decades of pastoral and personal experience have combined to teach this renowned pastor a lot about what hope is and what it isn't, and have given him the wisdom to share it with us in simplicity and grace. - Barbara Crafton For fifty years now, John Claypool has devoted himself to the care of souls. In this small but focused book he offers the cumulative wisdom of those years to all whose hearts hunger for hope in a world that is running short on this ancient Christian virtue. - Barbara Taylor, author of When God Is Silent