Hope and Christian Ethics

This book describes how the theological virtue of hope contributes to happiness in this life and not just the next.

David Elliot (Author)

9781107156173, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 14 July 2017

276 pages
23.5 x 16 x 2.1 cm, 0.62 kg

'David Elliot offers a penetrating account of hope rooted in the thought of Aquinas that would impress even the most ardent Thomist. Yet he capaciously engages a great breadth of the Western intellectual tradition from the Greeks and Romans, through Nietzsche, to contemporary scholars including John Bowlin, Jeffrey Stout, and Timothy Jackson. He manages to recover long-neglected resources from the tradition on hope - such as despair, presumption, and worldliness - in a manner both intellectually robust and readily practically applicable. On top of all this Elliot writes simply exquisite prose. With this book Elliot joins Josef Pieper in setting the standard for scholarship on hope.' William C. Mattison III, University of Notre Dame, Indiana

The theological virtue of hope has long been neglected in Christian ethics. However, as social, civic and global anxieties mount, the need to overcome despair has become urgent. This book proposes the theological virtue of hope as a promising source of rejuvenation. Theological hope sustains us from the sloth, presumption and despair that threaten amid injustice, tragedy and dying; it provides an ultimate meaning and transcendent purpose to our lives; and it rejoices and refreshes us 'on the way' with the prospect of eternal beatitude. Rather than degrading this life and world, hope ordains earthly goods to our eschatological end, forming us to pursue social justice with a resilience and vitality that transcend the cynicism and disillusionment so widespread at present. Drawing on Thomas Aquinas and virtue ethics, the book shows how the virtue of hope contributes to human happiness in this life and not just the next.

1. The Eudaimonia gap
2. The theological virtue of hope in Aquinas
3. Rejoicing in hope
4. Presumption and moral reform
5. Despair and consolation
6. The problem of worldliness
7. Hope and the Earthly City
Bibliography
Notes
Index.

Subject Areas: Christian theology [HRCM], Religion & beliefs [HR], Ethics & moral philosophy [HPQ], Philosophy [HP]