Adventures in Virtue Ethics: Hope

Since I started studying theology, I have known that I love morality and ethics, but I didn't realize until the beginning of last semester that virtue ethics is the only ethics that makes since to me. Don't get me wrong I still love Thomistic natural law theory, but it needs application and the best way see is virtue ethics which provides a way of living discipleship, which is more or less lost in Christianity today. You hear Christians talk about personal relationships with Christ, and accepting Him as your Lord and Savior, but very little about what that means for how a Christian should live her life. Being a Christian means imitating or following Christ. If we are to be followers or disciples of Christ we must follow the way He had set out for us, and to do so we must cultivate certain practices, virtues. 

Virtues are basically good habits or dispositions that an individual develops through practice or repetition of acts of the virtue. In other words, to gain courage, we must act courageously. Virtues provide guidance as to how we are to live in act, and they empower our practices that develop into out actions. Virtues enable us to act in specific ways and they are dispositions that need to be cultivated. While virtues develop and become ours by our practicing them, not all virtues are habits we can come by naturally, they must be infused in us. These infused dispositions are given to us by God and are thus called theological virtues. The theological virtues are faith, hope, and charity (love). These three virtues are the basis for an ethics of discipleship. 

Faith, of course, is foundational. It is the basis for Christian life and the development of hope and love. Faith of course leads to hope, if we believe in God we will have hope that what He has promised will be. Over and over in fundamental theology it was reiterated that the purpose of why we do theology is stated in 1 Peter 3:15, “Always be ready to give an account of your hope to those who demand it of you.” Part of how we can account for our hope is through our actions. Our response of faith to Jesus is to acknowledge our encounter with him in our hearts, acknowledging Jesus with our heart is the basis of conversion and living out discipleship. Merely confessing faith with the lips is somewhat empty. Talk is cheap, and one's encounter with Jesus and having faith in him means something for the way one is to live her life.

This is what discipleship is, acknowledging God with your heart in faith and witnessing to that faith through your actions. This is what faith should be for us today too, it should be known through our actions and living of love for one another than through the confession of our words. A person’s faith in Jesus necessarily makes her member of the Christian community.

For Christians, hope is the trust in the promise that God will bring to fruition what has been promised, namely, that if we believe in God, we will have eternal life. Typically hope is understood as focused on a future good. As a virtue, our hope should have implications the way we live our life. That we are a people of hope as Christians should be exemplified in our lives. How would anyone know we have hope if we are not living it? Hope is a necessary virtue to living in the face of adversity, the trust that what has been promised will be fulfilled, and that by continuing to live our faith; we can share in the fulfillment of the promise. Hope is the way we live our faith.

But hope is not only about when things are going well. We must also be able to account for our hope when we face adversity and challenges. If I cannot account for my hope in light of my present situations, I cannot account for my hope. Even when things are bleak, we should not lose hope. 

Planning to Plan to Plan and Falling Back on Hope

As the old joke goes, "If you want to see God laugh, make a plan." I must say I sort of had a plan for today, and it totally did not work out according to plan. I was really upset, but then I realized, it isn't the end of the world. It isn't even the last chance. There is still time, there is still opportunity, and I need to seize it.

I did realize though, in missing the chance, that it's a chance I don't want to miss. So many times I have let things slip by and regretted them later. Too often I let fear take control and get the last word. Over and over in my studies of ethics, I reiterate how we develop virtues by practicing them. So if I want to have courage I can only get it by doing courageous things, or if I want to have love, I must do loving things. I need to develop the habit so I can live it. And I cannot be brave or courageous by chickening out every chance I get.

So I'll face that fear and overcome it, but I'll cling to hope in the process. Not hope for the desired outcome (of course that is there as well), but hope that even if it doesn't go according to plan things will still be alright, I will survive, and I will carry on.

Over Thinking About Overthinking

So last night I watched "Love and Other Disasters." It is kind of a redo of "Breakfast at Tiffany's." But in this movie one character, Peter, over thinks the possible relationship with this guy he runs into in a hotel lobby. To the point he sees no point in having an actual relationship because he's lived it in his head, and so when he actually meets this guy, their encounter totally sucks.

I am not an over thinker to that extent, but I do tend to over think just about everything and worry too much about what people's actions and words mean. It gets problematic, and I get obsessive about it. The problem is compounded by my not reading people very well.

So at the advise of a good friends of mine, this is the end of my thinking about a current situation until something can possibly be done.

It's the first step in curbing this over thinking problem I have. Sure hope it works!

Every New Beginning . . .

Semi Sonic had it right, every new beginning does come from some other beginning's end.

And while those endings are sad when they happen, they open the way for all sorts of new beginnings and first. Like the first time you notice someone's smile. Or realize you love they way they say your name. Lasts are sad, but firsts are good.