ABSTRACT
The final chapter of this book deals with decidedly practical issues concerning the existence of evil within God's good universe and discusses how we should confront or respond to the evil that obtains within our world and in our lives. Specifically, both drawing and expanding upon Aquinas's account of the theological virtue of hope, this chapter develops a theological account of hoping in the face of evil. Hope is the God-given virtue that enables us to rely fully on God to redeem all of the evil in which we each participate, and in which others participate. It is also possible to hope that God's redemptive plan for the cosmos will include redeeming evil for all human beings in the end. And it is possible to hope that God will include animals in heaven as part of his redemptive plan. This chapter also discusses how and why hoping in the face of evil is rational, since it is grounded in rational exercises of the virtue of faith. The conclusion of this chapter is that this book as a whole constitutes an exercise of hope: a hope in God's redeeming work in God's world and in human lives.
