But lately I've been wondering about the relationship between metaphysics and emotions. Beyond a moral vision, we also inherited emotional inclinations and biases from the Judeo-Christian tradition. These emotions were rooted in a metaphysics. And similar to morality in the modern West, we've retained these feelings but rejected their metaphysical source and rationale. The problem with this situation is that these emotions, without their associated metaphysics, are becoming unsustainable. We find these emotions increasingly exhausting or incomprehensible.
Consider emotions associated with hope. Christian hope flows out of Christian metaphysics. The metaphysics justifies and sustains this hope. But when you drop the metaphysics hope becomes unsustainable and unjustifiable.
So it's no surprise therefore to find the modern world struggling to sustain hope. We've rejected the metaphysics that made hope possible. Stripped of its metaphysical support and justification, hope is just a feeling we conjure up for ourselves, over and over again. This effort is exhausting. More, we feel a certain falseness in the effort, forcing this made-up feeling, a feeling we feel we're supposed to have but have no idea why.
We are hope sick and hope weary because we no longer possess the metaphysics that once made hope real and sustainable. We know we should be hopeful, but can't say why anymore.
