On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life Through Great Books

by Karen Swallow Prior

the hope that is a theological virtue, the hope spoken of in the Bible that is regarded as akin to faith and love (1 Cor. 13:13), is not a natural passion but a supernatural gift conferred by God. This virtue of hope cannot be understood apart from God. It is supernatural in both origin and sustenance, the gift of grace, not the result of mere human effort, although the Christian’s careful cultivation of hope may, like the exercise of all virtues, bring about its increase. Theological hope “is a steadfast turning toward the true fulfillment of man’s nature, that is, toward good, only when it has its source in the reality of grace in man and is directed toward supernatural happiness in God.”15 As with all spiritual gifts, its source can be nourished or quenched.16 Thus, while it originates in God, theological hope is a “habit of the will.”17