Thomas Aquinas and the Theological Virtue of Hope in Times of Quiet Despair – Prof. Rik Van Nieuwenhove

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4.8 • 873 Ratings

🗓️ 2 April 2026

⏱️ 49 minutes

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Summary

Prof. Rik Van Nieuwenhove argues that Thomas Aquinas’s theology of hope offers a needed response to quiet despair by reorienting human life toward God, eternal beatitude, and the Paschal Mystery.

This lecture was given on March 12th, 2026, at University of Edinburgh.

For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.

About the Speakers:

Rik Van Nieuwenhove is Professor of Medieval Theology at Durham University, UK. He has published scholarly articles on medieval theology (especially Aquinas) and spirituality, theology of the Trinity, and soteriology. His books include: Providence, Evil and Salvation. A Thomist Perspective (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2026); Thomas Aquinas on Contemplation (Oxford: OUP, 2021); Introduction to Medieval Theology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2nd ed., 2022); Jan van Ruusbroec. Mystical Theologian of the Trinity (IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2003); Introduction to the Trinity (with D. Marmion) (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011); and he is co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of Apophatic Theology (with John Betz) (Oxford: OUP, 2026); The Theology of Thomas Aquinas (with J. Wawrykow) (IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2005); and Late Medieval Mysticism of the Low Countries (with R. Faesen & H. Rolfson) (NJ: Paulist Press, 2008).

Keywords: Aquinas, Assisted Dying, Despair, Divine Beatitude, Hope, Paschal Mystery, Presumption, Quiet Despair, Suffering, Theological Virtues

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Tomistic Institute podcast.
0:06.2	Our mission is to promote the Catholic intellectual tradition in the university, the church, and the wider public square.
0:13.1	The lectures on this podcast are organized by university students at Temistic Institute chapters around the world.
0:19.5	To learn more and to attend these events, visit us at
0:22.5	to mystic institute.org. I'm going to talk about the theological virtue of hope tonight and its
0:30.5	opposite vices, namely despair and presumption. I'll be covering that in the first part of this paper.
0:40.3	But then to sort of drive home the significance of what Thomas has to say on these matters,
0:47.3	I'll be briefly touching upon a somewhat controversial topic, namely the issue of assisted dying, because in my view, at least,
1:02.0	the discussion on euthanasia and assisted dying centers around an understanding of the human being,
1:13.6	and the role of hope and hopelessness, I think, is key in that,
1:19.6	although it is often left unspoken.
1:23.6	So, last year, 2025, was the Jubilee Year of Hope.
1:31.9	And hope is a virtue that seems to have gone missing from today's society.
1:38.3	Can everybody hear me by the way?
1:40.3	They're at the back. Yeah? Okay, good.
1:43.3	Even mundane optimism, which has little semblance
1:46.0	to Christian hope, appears to have faded. Many years ago, it was Henry David Thoreau,
1:53.0	who said that most people live lives of quiet desperation. So in this paper, I want to outline
2:00.0	how Thomas Aquinas characterizes the theological
2:03.6	virtue of hope and its opposite vices such as presumption and despair and why this matters.
2:11.6	Now, as you may know, scholastic theologians love to make distinctions.
2:20.3	So we have to make a first distinction between natural hope and the theological virtue of hope.
	...

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