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The Virtue of Hope |
| Section: MODERN THOUGHT / THE RECOVERY OF VIRTUE |
| Author: Russell Hittinger |
| Publication: The world & I online |
| Issue Date: 12/1/1987 |
| Size: 8,007 Words, 47,138 Characters |
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The late Hannah Arendt once mentioned that the most significant distinction between our time and preceding centuries is the "loss of belief in future states," by which she meant transcendent states, or the belief in heaven and hell. The anticipation of such future states, she observed, "is no longer among the motives which would prevent or stimulate the actions of a majority." Characteristically, the populations of modern regimes are stimulated by more palpable, this-worldly ambitions, particularly those of a material nature. It is perhaps paradoxical that one could also state, without exaggeration, that hope is the principal passion of modern life.
In the modern era, nearly every society has undergone one or more revolutions. And although the bearing of hope upon social psycholog...
. . .
...op it? It is unclear that anything short of the restoration of the virtue of hope will be able to prevent a brutally secular remaking of man--in the name, of course, of overcoming his frustration with "human" limitation. Since the virtue of hope requires either knowledge of or belief in a transcendent Being, the issue of hope is inextricably religious in nature. That shouldn't surprise us.
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