ABSTRACT
Hope is a virtue whose psychological manifestation is optimism. In the moral life of the Christian, its importance is to protect us against discouragement. Every week several million citizens hope to win the lottery and buy a ticket accordingly. In contrast to the trivialization of the concept, the theological virtue of hope underpins the whole of the moral enterprise. God’s reign has an essentially future dimension that is unattainable by human practices; it is the object of eschatological hope. Without the virtue of hope, the average person might well abandon the quest for goodness, being overwhelmed by a sense of helplessness in the face of so much evil. A thorough investigation of the scriptural basis of hope was provided by Jurgen Moltmann in his important book Theology of Hope. At the collective level, he situated hope in the context of eschatology.
