On Hope: Part 4, Faith and Eschatological Hope

A final post contrasting psychology theories of hope with visions of Christian hope. 

This last point I'll make is, perhaps, the most obvious. We've talked about agency and pathway attributions in Snyder's theory of hope, and how a religious perspective on those attributions radically reconfigures the theory, or wholly sets it aside. Let's now turn to the goal-directed and motivational aspect of Snyder's theory.

The most obvious contrast between psychological hope and Christian hope is that Christian hope is eschatological in nature. Christian hope is not realized in this life but in the next, in the New Creation. Consequently, hope is intimately associated with faith. As Hebrews puts it:

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. 

Eschatological hope can fit with Snyder's theory. Arriving "holy and blameless" at the Day of the Lord can be our future-facing goal. Heaven can be our desired destination. And if we have the appropriate agency and pathway attributions, especially in light of everything I said in the last post about God's involvement, we have hope that we can reach the goal. This hope also creates motivation, a motivation the New Testament repeatedly appeals to and encourages. Pressing on, perseverance, holding fast. As Paul writes in Philippians:

My goal is to know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, assuming that I will somehow reach the resurrection from among the dead.

Not that I have already reached the goal or am already perfect, but I make every effort to take hold of it because I also have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus.

Recall, Snyder describes hope as a motivational state directed toward a goal. I think we see that clearly here with Paul. All that to say, there are clear applications of Snyder's theory, structurally speaking, to eschatological hope. 

That said, the shift to eschatology again pivots us away from psychology to theology. For example, some people can lose eschatological hope. They might feel damned. They might lose their faith. Their trust in God might falter. And in those instances, if we are using Snyder's theory, how are we to restore hope? Should we look toward agency attributions and rehabilitate self-efficacy? I wouldn't think so given that self-efficacy can't get you to heaven. Concerning pathways, what route do I point to that a person might walk if faith or trust is failing? Or if they feel themselves damned?

In such instances, it seems to me, our pastoral response is to simply point people to Christ. To accompany them and to pray with and for them. Because, as I've pointed out in this series, God is our hope. With God there is no need for agency or pathway attributions as God is both the power and the path. Hope, as we've seen, becomes engaged with faith. Having hope is having faith. And having faith is having hope. This faith/hope connection brings in an element that is missing in Snyder's theory. To trust in God is hope itself, no agency or pathway attributions needed. This isn't to say aspects of Snyder's theory don't appear in religious hope, as I sketched above, just that hope has shifted into a metaphysical key that demands pastoral and theological responses that psychology cannot provide.