The library received a batch of books on optimism, learned unhelplessness,
positive well-being and personal strengths last week. It struck me how this is
related to the theological virtue of hope.
Virtue is
often imagined as boring. Would you attend a lecture on virtue? Yet we practice
virtues every day, often without knowing it. I met a man at the pool who had
some writing tattooed on the underside of his arm. ‘What does it say?’ I asked.
‘It’s the names of my folks, who’ve passed on,’ he said. ‘Not that I need it to
remind me, but it’s good to have them there.’ This is the virtue of filial
piety, not boring at all, fascinating rather. I doubt he’d have thought of
himself as a virtuous man.
The
theological virtues —faith, hope, charity — are, technically, available to Christians
through grace. But when I consider them in the light of the cardinal virtues —
justice, prudence, temperance, fortitude — I think hope can be practiced by
anyone. Hope is the desire for salvation, the belief that it is possible,
coupled with the ability not to give up. Those who don’t give up are practicing
hope, a virtue that is open to practice.
In the classical world both East and West, virtue is the main achievement. To practise the virtues, as best you can, is to show strength of character, to be on the way to being truly human. The word has been corrupted in the modern world, such that to be virtuous has come to mean being good, where even good has little value. The ancients would not have understood what was going on today, except that they tell us that virtue is to be found and done.
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