Going Further Together

The Theological Virtue of Hope and Flourishing in Christian Communities

Abstract

Christian communities are often discussed as communities of faith. In this article I consider how they are also communities of hope. Hope is highly relevant to communal flourishing as the theological virtue of hope aims at one’s ultimate postmortem well-being. Yet, authors such as Augustine and Aquinas have described the theological virtue of hope as being for one’s own eternal flourishing. Thus, theological hope can appear to be too solipsistic and otherworldly to contribute to communal flourishing in this world; however, I argue that theological hope can overcome these two difficulties. First, I show how theological hope is inherently interpersonal and social given its reliance on God. I then explain how hope contributes to the flourishing of Christians and Christian communities in this life. While much could be said about the benefits of hope, I only argue for two such benefits: 1). Hope helps us strike the balance of appropriate human agency in relation to God and others, avoiding prideful and slothful presumption and, 2) hope encourages us to strive for greater flourishing through the virtue of magnanimity. In short, I argue that Christians and Christian communities go further in flourishing when they hope together.