Fear and hope

The French philosopher, scientist, and mathematician Rene Descartes, in The Passions of the Soul, his final published work, explores the relationship between fear and hope. At the risk of oversimplifying a very complex argument, he proposes that a balance of the two is essential. Too much fear can drive out all hope and leave one paralyzed and unable to act. Too much hope renders a person complacent and also leads to inaction. the basic argument is sound and has influenced many thinkers in the generations since the time of Descartes. I have struggled with Descartes since my college years, striving to understand, but not quite accepting all of the arguments presented. I’m sure that part of the issue is language. Descartes wrote in Latin. I was studying French in college and read some of Descartes in French, but my command of either Latin or French is very incomplete. I am an English speaker and i think in English. There are good English translations of Descartes available and I may be reaching the stage in my life where I need to return to his work and read it again.

I have been thinking of Descartes balance recently as I think about the future of the Christian church. it is clear that we are living through a season of dramatic change in the church. Christian institutions are in decline around the world and while there are some areas of growth in Christianity and even some places where congregations are experiencing dramatic growth, more prevalent are congregations and denominations like the one I serve, that have been experiencing gradual decline.

Institutions have strong self-preservation instincts and a great deal of energy is being invested within the church in the area of institutional survival. It doesn’t happen to be one of the areas of ministry that arouses much passion from me. I’ve been known to comment that I don’t quite understand how an institution that proclaims the power of the resurrection can spend so much of its time living in fear of death. I have understood my role in the church to be one of service. I am called to serve in a particular place in a particular time and my role is to serve as faithfully as I am able in that time and place. I don’t have the power to change the course of history. I am just one small part in a very large system. It doesn’t hinge on my actions.

But I am a person of deep hope. And that is where I think I vary from the thought of Descartes. I think I see hope differently from the way it is presented in his writings. Descartes generally writes of hope as optimism - the ability to see good in the future. He writes, “Hope is a disposition of the soul to persuade itself that what it desires will come to pass, which is caused by a particular movement of the spirits, namely, by that of mingled joy and desire.” I think that genuine hope is deeper and more than just a desire for joy.

Setting aside the definition of hope for a moment, I do, however appreciate Descartes sense of balance. You have probably heard the old joke about the couple who had twins. One was an incurable optimist and the other a complete pessimist. Seeking to change their boys’ perspectives, they gave the pessimist a pony for a birthday gift. He greeted the gift with a sigh, “It will be too much work to care for the animal and it will soon get sick and die.” The other boy was given a box of manure. His response was to jump up excitedly and rush outdoors, exclaiming, “There’s got to be a pony out there somewhere!” There is little profit in always looking for the worst outcome in every situation, but sometimes you have to learn that a box of manure is just a box of manure.

Hope, however, is more than optimism. And I would go farther to say that hope is not the opposite of fear. Hope doesn’t exclude fear and people of hope experience real fear. I read the stories of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane and can sense his fear about his coming arrest, torture and death. I think Jesus really experienced fear. But the fear did not incapacitate him. He proceeded in spite of the fear. Hope can come to the places of fear.

The letters to John cast a different image declaring that the opposite of fear is love: “God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. Love is perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgement, because as he is, so are w in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear . . .” (1 John 4: 16b-18a)

Just as hope is more than mere optimism, love is more than a puff of emotion. These are substantive realities that can shape human experience.

Descartes might say that the vision of 1 John results in complacency. He sees fear as an essential element in life. Passion and desire are born in anxiety. If you are certain that what you desire will come to pass, you lose the energy to pursue your desire. It is the anxiety that it might not come to pass that gives energy to life. Casting out fear, however, does not mean that fear ceases to exist or that only desired outcomes will come to pass.

The argument may be one of semantics. But when I apply it to life in the church I know that dealing with fear is an essential task for church leaders. Change brings loss and loss brings grief and people fear change and loss and grief. Leaders need to enable those who follow to face change and loss and grief. Hope is born not by eliminating them, but by facing and acknowledging their reality without allowing them to incapacitate the community. A true leader must lead with love.

E.B. White wrote a letter to a man who said he had lost faith in humanity. The closing of that letter may be an appropriate way to think of hope: “Hang on to your hat. Hang on to your hope. And wind the clock, for tomorrow is another day.”

Copyright (c) 2019 by Ted E. Huffman. I wrote this. If you would like to share it, please direct your friends to my web site. If you'd like permission to copy, please send me an email. Thanks!