Elusive hope in a secular age

Hope is ever elusive. To describe it compellingly from the inside is to dive into an abyss of despair, look up (and around), and make metaphors from the recognition of a stranded togetherness. Rich depictions of the mystery we call “hope” emphasize its gravity rather than its immensity. They give it form without any definite shape and reveal its substance without drawing strict boundaries. In short, they grammatically enact its elusiveness. In a moment where hope is on the wane, and most academic discussions reduce its complexity, David Newheiser has gifted us with a poignant scholarly meditation on hope that preserves its mystery and confirms its evasiveness. Newheiser’s question is not “What is hope?” for his aim is neither analytical clarity nor conceptual coherence. Rather, he wants an effective way to describe how the human heart presses forward in the face of insurmountable odds at an unprecedented moment in the history of the modern West where the conditions for religion have fundamentally shifted. Thus, his is not a conventional hope; it is a hope only made lucid via melancholy and love. And it is given form by an aching emptiness that will remain—in spite of itself—unfulfilled. Though ultimately unsatisfied, this hope is neither “tragic” nor “dark.” It is, rather, simply the practice of living, thoughtfully and reflexively, in the face of existential uncertainty and the always-unforeseeable future. Hope in a Secular Age strikes a quiet tone of awe in the face of disaster as it posits a hope that might achieve the same. It connects a line of spiritual/intellectual descent that eloquently links Western notions of “sacred”/“secular” (and the personal to the political) and highlights the perpetual affirmation in all negation. In doing so, the text helps us better understand the dynamics of our tryings and our failings in the face of the impossible and allows us to confront the absurd and the unknown (all primary features of human experience) with equanimity. To wonder in the face of this mystery is to perform an epic act of reverence. To keep going in the face of loss and uncertainty is to act with hope. As much as it is an intervention in multi-disciplinary scholarly approaches to hope, Newheiser’s focus goes well beyond the virtuous hope that sits at the core of his Christian theological heritage and extends past the hope-as-a-passion that lies at the heart of the Anglo-Enlightenment philosophical inheritance. His hope is derived from the margins of those traditions, particularly the thought of 5th century Christian theologian Dionysus and the late modern philosophical skeptic Jacques Derrida.