Virtues Of Hope Research Articles

The balancing of virtues-Muslim perspectives on palliative and end of life care: Empirical research analysing the perspectives of service users and providers.

In this paper, I will share findings from a qualitative study that offers a thematic analysis of 76 interviews with Muslim patients and families as well as doctors, nurses, allied health professionals, chaplains and community faith leaders across the United Kingdom. The data show that for many Muslims, Islam-its texts and lived practice-is of central importance when they are deliberating about death and dying . Central to these deliberations are virtues rooted within Islamic theology and ethics, the traditions of adab (virtue) and aqhlaq (proper conduct). Themes analysed include theological and moral understandings around the virtues of hope and acceptance. The study provides an analysis of these themes in relation to the experiences of Muslim patients and families arriving at meaning making around death and dying and how this interfaces with their interaction with biomedicine and healthcare. The study shows that the juxtaposition of different values and moral frameworks require careful negotiation when Muslim patients and families encounter the healthcare system. The study also describes how healthcare professionals and staff of other faiths and no faith encounter Muslim beliefs and practices, and the challenges they face in interpreting virtues and values rooted in faith, especially when these are perceived to be mutually opposed or inconsistent.

The Virtue of Hope in a Turbulent World

AbstractI argue that hope is an ethical virtue. Hope, I suggest, is necessary for engaging in a broad kind of project which is essential for living a meaningful human life, and this gives us reason to think that it is non-instrumentally valuable in our lives. Specifically, I claim that hope is well understood as a ‘structural virtue’ without which we are prone to slip into despair, fantasy and cynicism. Moreover, I argue that this virtue will be particularly significant in turbulent times, when we may not be in a position to have outright (positive) expectations about the future.

Pedeutology of the XXIas a positive social science

The popular in the modern timespragmatic approach, creates in teaching instrumental attitude to professional tasks execution. It means that reaching goals, on utilitarian level,leads to more effective actions. The positive social sciencestake another approach, basing on the usual human inner drive to be happy. Such being takes place when a person realizes well-being for others and for oneself, following hope, which direction is pointed out by freedom, dignity and human responsibility. The main purpose of the article is to reveal the evidence that create pedeutology of the XXI century as a science of strong teaching profession: its values, meaningfulness and beauty. It has been pointed out to agathological and arthrological aspect of pedeutology. The first one refers to doing good deeds. It is represented by optimal pupil development, which therefore should become a priority in teacher’s professional actions. In reference to the above, the instrumental and vocational teaching context has been characterized. The second aspect refers to the teacher’s moral capabilities, called the virtues. A virtue is a central knowledgeable category of positive social sciences. According to this issue, the utility of the virtue theory has been presented in for the pedeutological thought. The extraordinary attention has been put upon the virtue of hope, reasoning its inevitability in the process of upbringing in the XXI century.

Membangun Masyarakat Berpengharapan: Belajar dari Pengalaman Masyarakat Dusun Caben Kabupaten Bantul

This paper describes how the people of Caben, Bantul, Yogyakarta, were able to carry out the crisis of earthquake on May 27, 2006. It happened because of their hopes and submission to God. These attitudes have been refined through spreading love and solidarity between people. This research found that love and solidarity cannot be separated from the virtue of hope and faith. These two essential virtues are very important for those who suffer from a disaster. Learning from the people of Caben, Bantul, this paper considers that a hopeful community could be constructed by spreading love and solidary. Social encounters and cooperation must be continuously preserved to make social cohesion and network. It represents a thankful behavior toward the mercy of God. It is always relevant to have such a hopeful community here in Indonesia as the country of disaster.

The Perspective of Christian Pedagogy in the Educational Dialogue of Love

The article validates the substantiality of the educational dialogue of love to the Christian pedagogy. The first part of the article introduces to the multidisciplinary character of Christian pedagogy. The second part of the article reveals the place of the educational dialogue of love in the main purpose of Christian pedagogy, that is to educate and cultivate the divine virtue of hope, faith and love. The third part of the article presents the main element of Christian pedagogy – educational dialogue of love. Practical originality of this scientific article is related to one of the given conclusions–recommendations of the research: the author suggests that the Teachers Preparation Standard should include the competence of developing the dialogue culture. It is essential that teachers must acquire competence of creating a dialogue to establish good relations with students, that is, to show understanding and acceptance, listen attentively, avoid being judgmental and negative criticism. Dialogue of love becomes an important educational factor ensuring accurate and adequate communication in various pedagogical situations in teaching, which are constantly changing and often unpredictable. The development of dialogue culture becomes a special mission for teachers.

Understanding Dante’s Comedy as Virtuous Friendship

As Dante explains in his epistle to Can Grande, the purpose of the Comedy is to move the reader from a state of misery to a state of happiness. The poet himself testifies that the poem was written as a work of moral philosophy oriented to the achievement of happiness, eudaimonia: the beatific vision of God. Moreover, Dante insists on his poem’s efficacy to affect in its readers a similar moral and religious transformation as that which the poem represents through the narrative journey of the pilgrim. To put it another way, Dante represents his poem’s relationship to its reader as a kind of virtuous friendship. This essay sets forth a model for teaching Dante’s poem as an experiment in virtuous friendship that can transform the classroom into a workshop for the philosophical and religious quest for happiness. This involves teaching the text with an eye not only to the content and style of the poem but also to the performative and participatory demands of the text. Beginning with this framework, this essay works out pedagogical strategies for teaching the Comedy as a form of virtuous friendship extended over the centuries between Dante Alighieri and the contemporary reader. Chiefly, I explore ways Dante makes his readers complicit in the pilgrim’s own moral and spiritual journey toward the virtue of hope translated into the practice of prayer through a close, pedagogical reading of Inferno 3, Purgatorio 5, and Paradiso 20. I explore ways that Dante’s use of surprise, shock, misdirection, appeal to mystery, and retreat to silence creates a morally significant aporia of knowledge that serves as a laboratory for readers’ own virtuous transformation. I end with a critical assessment of the challenges involved in understanding the Comedy as virtuous friendship.

Ministry in a Post-Religious Society: Can we do it at All?

AbstractThis paper considers some of the issues relating to Christian ministry in a cultural world that thinks of itself as post-religious. It builds upon some ideas of Simone Weil on forms of the implicit love of God (with particular attention to beauty and music), Karl Rahner's anthropology and the Christian doctrine of the creational relationship. It discusses the way Rousseau's bifurcation of religion into personal religiosity and a public civil religion is a template that the modern world seems to favour, making it difficult for Christian religion to find a place in liberal cultures of rights and tolerance. It ends by exploring Marilynne Robinson's suggestion that ‘people live profound lives’ and suggests that the virtues of hope and love might be signs of serious living in the absence of explicit religious belief.

Democratic Education for Hope: Contesting the Neoliberal Common Sense

This paper provides a reinterpretation of Paulo Freire’s philosophy of hope and suggests that this interpretation may function as a fruitful ground for democratic education that aims to contest the prevailing neoliberal ‘common sense’. The paper defines hope as a democratic virtue required for resisting the discursive practises and affective mechanisms associated with the contemporary neoliberal ethos—those, which Carlos Alberto Torres characterizes as the “neoliberal common sense” and Lauren Berlant as “cruel optimism”. Conclusively, the paper constructs three principles for democratic education –´history as possibility´, ´the ethics of intervention´, and ´democratization’—which are intended to function as a foundation for democratic education through which the virtue of hope can be fostered. These principles are argued to form a basis for reviving the political dimensions of education and thus allowing collective transformative action.

Prayer after Augustine: A Study in the Development of the Latin Tradition by Jonathan Teubner

Reviewed by: Prayer after Augustine: A Study in the Development of the Latin Tradition by Jonathan Teubner Adam Ployd Jonathan Teubner Prayer after Augustine: A Study in the Development of the Latin Tradition Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018 Pp. viii + 257. $88.00. The word "after" in the title of Jonathan Teubner's Prayer after Augustine ought not to be read as meaning simply "subsequent to" or "chronologically following." Rather, it should evoke the more substantial sense of "in the footsteps of" or "in the manner of." Teubner's monograph on prayer in the Augustinian tradition is not so much about how the practice or theory of prayer developed in the centuries immediately following the death of Augustine—although he devotes careful work to unearthing the legacy of Augustine in the writings of Boethius and Benedict—as it is about the way theological tradition is transmitted and adapted, the "kinematics," as he puts it. From this multi-layered study emerges an astute rendering of Augustine's understanding of prayer, a new approach to the early Augustinian tradition independent of the perennial Pelagian focus, and a theory of tradition that challenges the reigning options in modern theological ethics. The historical meat of Teubner's study is divided into two parts, each with four chapters. Part I examines how Augustine's understanding of prayer develops diachronically in his writings. Chapter One, "Learning to Pray," examines Augustine's earliest works, especially the Soliloquia, De moribus, and De magistro. Through these texts Teubner traces the development of Augustine's understanding of prayer from a Platonic reaching of the ratio toward God to a reflexive turning inward upon oneself as unknown. In Chapter Two, "Prayer as Acceptance of Time," Teubner demonstrates how Augustine comes to reject a view of immediate ascent in favor of an eschatologically fulfilled ascent whose temporal delay cultivates a purified desire through a life of patience in time. This argument develops through readings of De vera religione and De sermone Domini in monte that highlight the practices of scripture reading and communal prayer that embody and enliven [End Page 152] this theory. Chapter Three, "Prayer as Reception of the Other," fleshes out this vision of purifying prayer by unpacking Augustine's understanding of the totus Christus. Highlighting Augustine's use of the verb induere, Teubner focuses on the Enarrationes in Psalmos, through which he illustrates how prayer is both the means for incorporation into the totus Christus and the fruit of such incorporation, as Christian existence becomes defined by a dialectic of desire and patience nurtured by the grace of the Holy Spirit. Part I concludes with Chapter Four, "Prayer as the Hope of Wisdom," in which Teubner comes to Ep. 130 and the De trinitate. His reading turns upon two terminological pairs—scientia/sapientia and deprecari/precari—which he reads as mutually informing. Deprecari represents the prayer for purification while precari signifies the desire for participation in God. Scientia pairs with deprecari inasmuch as it is linked with the humility of Christ's incarnation, the very humility that Christians must take on (induere) if they are to reach the sapientia for which they desire (precari). Thus, Teubner concludes his analysis of Augustine's approach to prayer by highlighting not only the tension of desire and patience but also the virtue of hope that sustains the Christian within that life-long tension that is the life of prayer. In Part II, Teubner traces the influence of this Augustinian approach to prayer within the writings of Boethius and the Rule of St. Benedict. Each figure receives two chapters, one for what Teubner terms "Augustinianism 1" and another for "Augustinianism 2," categories he describes in the introduction: "Augustinianism 1 refers to the citation, reference, and particular allusion to a writing from Augustine's pen. . . . Augustinianism 2 is the use of certain general orientations and constellations of thought from Augustine without necessarily sharing specific doctrinal positions" (15). In chapter 5, "The Augustinianism 1 of the Opuscula sacra," Teubner argues that "Boethius' very mode or practice of inquiry is influenced by Augustine's use of prayer in De trinitate and Ep. 130" (128). That is to say, following Augustine, Boethius emphasizes the nature of prayer...

Aquinas and the Theology of the Body: The Thomistic Foundations of John Paul II's Anthropology by Thomas Petri

Reviewed by: Aquinas and the Theology of the Body: The Thomistic Foundations of John Paul II's Anthropology by Thomas Petri Angela Franks Aquinas and the Theology of the Body: The Thomistic Foundations of John Paul II's Anthropology by Thomas Petri, O.P. (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2016), xiii + 338 pp. The oft-quoted "time bomb" prediction of George Weigel appears to have come true, at least in the United States: John Paul II's theology of the body has exploded into prominence, from the obscure topic of impenetrable audience talks to the foundation for sex-ed curricula. Along with this higher profile has come criticism, in particular of its perceived over-sexualization of anthropology. More measured voices have been in play, but a critical mass of careful scholarship had not arisen to nuance the popular paradigm very substantially. In the last five years or so, the scholarly treatment of the theology of the body has finally caught up with its popularization. The volume under review by Thomas Petri, O.P., is just one of several published by Catholic University of America (CUA) Press alone, which is situating itself as the foremost Anglophone publisher of monographs on John Paul II. CUA Press books tend toward contextualizing the thought of the Pope within its scholastic matrix. Along these lines, Petri states his thesis forthrightly: "An authentic understanding of this 'theology of the body' relies on an appreciation of the intersection of the thought of John Paul II and Thomas [End Page 603] Aquinas" (1). In an insightful and original move, Petri finds this intersection particularly in the Pope's idea of the "spousal meaning of the body," the realization that our bodies testify that man is made for self-gift. Before turning to his elaboration of this point, it is necessary to see more clearly why this intersection is not obvious. The first reason is John Paul II's prose, which lacks the limpid clarity of Thomas Aquinas and is heavily salted with neologisms of a phenomenological flavor. Garrigou-Lagrange, he was not, even if he was the former's student. More significantly, the English translation of Wojtyła's philosophical magnum opus, Osoba i Czyn (translated as The Acting Person), deliberately obscured his dialogue with the metaphysical tradition by phenomenologizing his language even further. The most egregious example is the word suppositum, left in the Latin in the Polish original. The English translation indefensibly translates the subtitle "Man as 'Suppositum'" as "The Person as a Basic Ontological Structure." This rendering leaves the reader confused. What exactly is a "basic ontological structure"? Why "basic"? How "ontological"? All this is a wholly unnecessary distraction, given that Wojtyła was in fact developing a metaphysical tradition, not recreating one from scratch. Given this avoidable complication, Petri's book is most welcome, and he is correct to argue that an understanding of Thomas is necessary for grasping Wojtyła. Petri's secondary, unspoken goal seems to be to evangelize the untutored reader in Thomas's thought itself. He does this in a serene and comprehensive style that echoes his master. Along the way, the reader encounters ideas that are not, strictly speaking, necessary for the argument, such as a few pages here on the virtue of hope or there on the agent intellect. Without these digressions, the book might be a hundred pages shorter but also poorer, for the way in which Petri inserts the reader into the beauty of Thomas's comprehensive world-view is one of the many delightful experiences of this lovely book. The introduction and the first two chapters provide a detailed theological context for Wojtyła's thinking on sexual ethics. Chapter 1 contrasts Wojtyła's methodology with that of the neo-Scholastic manualist tradition by ably summarizing the historical scholarship exemplified by Servais Pinckaers, O,P. If the reader finds this approach persuasive, then this chapter will illuminate. But for any reader already unconvinced by Pinckaers's genealogy, the book does not provide any new evidence. Chapter 2 lays out the twentieth-century debates on contraception within Catholic theology, focusing on the question of the end(s) of sex and marriage: procreation...

Of All Things, Seen and Unseen: Josef Pieper’s Negative Philosophy, Science, and Hope

Looking at the relationship between theological, philosophical, and scientific methods within the thought of twentieth-century philosopher Josef Pieper, the author argues that Pieper’s perspective is that theology, philosophy, and science are limited in their ability to obtain knowledge because they are human methods of inquiry. However, theology and philosophy as conceived by Pieper welcome this restriction while modern mechanistic views of science deny it. This article focuses on the distinctive differences that Pieper sees between philosophy as an apophatic discipline and modern scientific methods. It concludes with a discussion on the relationship between philosophy and the virtue of hope.

Wymiary duchowości rodziny w adhortacji Amoris laetitia

Pope Francis in the exhortation Amoris laetitia stresses the importance of the spirituality of the family, basing it on the affirmation of a self-imparting God and cooperation with grace. The family, contemplating the intra-Trinitarian relations, should shape its bonds on the communion of the Divine Persons. To achieve this goal, it is necessary for the family members to be open to meeting God in prayer and in the Eucharist, as well as in everyday life, which in this way acquires a theological dimension. Encompassed in this is the cross and the resurrection, a contemplation of the fullness that is in God as well as the experience of human limitations. In this context, the family, as the domestic Church, participates in the virtue of hope and sees its fulfillment in eternity. Openness to accepting God’s action in family life is, at the same time, a strengthening of the interpersonal bonds. This is expressed in definitive, exclusive and personal love and reaches its fullness in fruitful love. A significant trait of the spirituality of the family is the selfless reception of new life and the receiving and giving of love. This is accomplished through words and gestures of love, mutual care and support. The manifestation of the spiritual maturity of the family is its missionary character and hospitality. A strong family influences its surroundings and transforms the world into a home where there is true fraternity.

HOPE FOR INTELLECTUAL HUMILITY

ABSTRACTRobert Roberts and W. Jay Wood (2007) define intellectual humility as a dispositional absence of concern for self-importance. And they contrast this virtue with distinct species of vicious pride. The aim of this project is to extend their regulative epistemology by considering how epistemic agents can cultivate a dispositional detachment from the concerns characteristic of the prideful vices of hyper-autonomy and presumption. I contend that virtuous communities help to foster intellectual humility through their role in cultivating the virtue of hope. Thus, regulative epistemology ought to focus greater attention on the role of communities in the development of intellectual virtue.

A Chestertonian Critique of Contemporary Liberalism and Its Aspirations to Cosmopolitan Reach

A prominent movement in contemporary liberalism drives toward cosmopolitanism; however, its foundations of value pluralism and equality as fairness will not sustain such an extension. A different tradition of liberalism did not reach toward global political institutions, but did include a doctrine of cosmopolitan respect for others. G. K. Chesterton propounded a Christian theory of liberalism that defended small, democratic communities of property-owning families. The theory also promoted the virtues of hope and charity. Not constructing global institutions, Chesterton’s liberalism inspires adherents to respect the autonomy and difference of others. Contemporary liberalism must be cosmopolitan and global according to its concepts of liberty and equality; Chesterton’s liberalism was patriotic, local, and respectful of others. The latter has the substance of cosmopolitanism, the former only the reach.

The Theological Virtue of Hope and the Art of Dying

This article discusses the nature of and challenges to the theological virtue of hope in the Ars moriendi or ‘art of dying’. It proposes a renewed ascesis of hope whose shared eschatological vision and set of practices help sustain from despair and prepare Christians for a hopeful and ‘good death’.

Conscience and Moral Tyranny

Moral claims based on conscience are increasingly prominent among both health professionals and the general public. These claims are typically treated with deference, and moral examination of them is confined to their impact on others. Such deference is rooted in religious tolerance and an embrace of personal liberties, reinforced by the idea that conscience plays a special role in assuring moral integrity and preserving personal identity. The result is a regard for conscience that allows it to become tyrannical, both over others and over one’s own moral sensibility. Two recent books, Lauris Kaldjian’s Practicing Medicine and Ethics (2014) and Judith Andre’s Worldly Virtue (2015), illuminate how we can reintegrate conscience within our moral sensibility rather than give it sovereignty over moral life. Andre’s interpretation of the virtues of hope and humility is especially helpful in assigning a more modest role to conscience within a dynamic and functional moral framework.

The Virtue of Hope

I argue that hope is a virtue insofar as it (1) leads to a more realistic view of the future than dispositions like optimism and pessimism, (2) promotes courage, and (3) encourages an important kind of solidarity with others. In light of this proposal, I consider the relationship between hope and our beliefs about what is good as well as the conditions under which hope may fail to be a virtue.

Changing Hopes: The Theological Virtue of Hope in Thomas Aquinas, John of the Cross, and Karl Rahner

This article examines some of the key variations in content and genre between three major Catholic accounts of the theological virtue of hope. The successive transpositions of Thomas Aquinas’s scholastic and speculative presentation of this pivotal virtue are traced in John of the Cross’s mystical and poetic account and Karl Rahner’s apologetic essay, each of which takes up and adapts the Thomistic formulation under pressure from the needs of a different context. The examination of these adaptations shows theological creativity at work and captures the development of tradition with reference to a central Christian virtue that is much studied in contemporary theology.

Hope-Filled Sanctification: A Reformed Appropriation of the Theological Virtue of Hope

Abstract Roman Catholic scholar Josef Pieper has suggested that the Protestant teaching of salvation by grace alone promotes a type of false assurance that undermines the necessity of striving for Christlikeness in the lives of Christians. Protestants do sometimes sound as if justification and sanctification are identical therefore downplaying the importance of good works and the pilgrim character of the Christian life. Nonetheless, a proper understanding of the distinction between justification and sanctification maintains both the Reformation emphasis on grace and a robust place for human striving toward sanctification in cooperation with the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, the Thomist tradition’s understanding of the theological virtues, as interpreted by Pieper, has the potential to offer a category for understanding the striving of sanctification as the fitting action of one with the disposition of hope.

The ascending soul and the virtue of hope: The spiritual temper of Chaucer's Boece and Retracciouns

This essay is about Geoffrey Chaucer's attitude to, and representation of, the workings of the soul in stirring itself towards God. It focuses on two inter-related concerns—on the one hand, a Boeth...