Rodney Hunter
Searching for Hope

August 29 - Sept. 4 

I worry about the future and I worry about the past.
I worry that my savings and my IRA won’t last.
I worry about politics and world affairs and such,
But most of all I worry that I worry much too much.
(Thomas Swallen)

In the middle of the worst recession since the Great Depression, we may have the right to worry – though it certainly does us little good. Prophets of doom abound. Some politicians try to heighten our fears and create hopelessness to press their agendas. Global warming does threaten the planet. Locales of terror seem to be everywhere: Guinea, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Sudan, Somalia, Zimbabwe – to name a few. Time magazine ran a whole issue about the blight that seems to be Detroit.

The spiritual discipline or virtue of hope may be needed now more than any time most of us can remember. In psychologist Erich Fromm’s book from 40 years ago, The Revolution of Hope, he called hope “the forgotten virtue.” I tend to agree. Love and faith certainly receive a lot more attention in sermons and retreats, media and self-help books. But, hope has always been entwined with the two other theological virtues of love and faith. Each depends on the other two being there.

Hope has been called a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul (Hebrews 6:19). Fromm describes hope as “the readiness at every moment for that which is not born, and yet not become desperate if there is no birth in our lifetime.” Hope is the peculiar human ability to transcend the present and its limitations, a fundamental openness to new possibilities because the present time, whether characterized as a time of prosperity or catastrophe, is not the only reality. Hope is the transcendent capacity in every human being, which, assisted by God’s grace, can look beyond the limits of the present and can envision a future made possible by God.

Rod Hunter has years of experience as in pastoral care and counseling as a distinguished professor at Candler School of Theology at Emory University and as a practitioner. In both of these roles he has helped people navigate the turbulent waters of fear and hopelessness toward the shores of hope. This session on Searching for Hope will help us all develop the “forgotten virtue,” which can only strengthen our ability to believe and love.
– Carl Koch, Director

More about Rodney Hunter

Dr. Rodney Hunter is professor emeritus of Pastoral Theology at Candler School of Theology, Emory University, in Atlanta. A former student of James Lapsley and Seward Hiltner at Princeton Theological Seminary, he is the author of numerous articles and books addressing pastoral psychology and pastoral theology.

A major emphasis in Rod Hunter’s work is the necessity of drawing more deeply on our religious tradition in order to complement some of the deficits in the tradition of psychology from which the clinical pastoral movement has received much wisdom. Dr. Hunter is perhaps best known as the general editor of the monumental Dictionary of Pastoral Care & Counseling --

This dictionary has established itself as perhaps the major reference source in its field across the world. Despite the differences between this country and the USA, a warm welcome therefore must be given to a new edition, thus making it available to a fresh generation. This remains a major contribution to an understanding of pastoral care and counselling which has and will stand the test of time.

In it we are introduced to the resources of theology, therapy, psychology and professional practice. Every library that claims to serve those in any of those fields must have a copy; and every student and practitioner must be acquainted with it. – Paul Ballard, Cardiff University, The Expository Times

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune--without the words,
And never stops at all,
And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.
I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.
-- Emily Dickinson