Abstract
dc:description.abstractIn recent years there has been growing scholarly interest in the theme of hope across a number of disciplines in response to a sense among many that the contemporary world offers more reasons for despair than for hope. Against this background, this thesis explores the contribution of John Calvin, the most influential theologian in the Reformed tradition, for theological reflection on hope. Despite the importance of hope in Calvin’s thought, currently there is no full-length assessment of the topic in Calvin. This thesis fills this lacuna by examining the nature and function of hope in Calvin’s theology across a range of doctrinal loci, with a primary focus on the Institutes of the Christian Religion (1559). In doing so, it foregrounds several important themes that have been overlooked or underrecognized in Calvin scholarship, including the relationship between hope and salvation-historical narrative, the affective and experiential dimensions of hope, the close relationship between hope and assurance, and the role of specific Christian practices in fostering and sustaining hope. This thesis has two parts, the first historical (chapters 2–4) and the second constructive (chapter 5). Chapter 1 introduces the rationale for and significance of this thesis on Calvin’s theology of hope, situates the project amidst current literature on the subject, attends to the grammar and vocabulary Calvin uses in his account of hope, and explains the contributions of this study and the method of reading Calvin that will be used. Chapter 2 brings to light the close relation between hope and narrative in Calvin’s thought. This chapter demonstrates that Calvin’s theology of hope is a “storied hope” because it is grounded in a biblical and historical narrative of redemption that is indexed to Christ. Chapter 3 names hope as a central affective experience integral to justifying faith in Calvin’s thought. This chapter examines the ways in which the experience of hope tends to overlap with, and in many ways is constituted by, an experience of assurance of faith as Calvin understands it. Through a re-examination of Calvin’s doctrine of assurance, this chapter also demonstrates that hope is bound up with the seal of the Holy Spirit on the heart in Calvin’s definition of faith. Additionally, this chapter brings to light the deep and complex connection Calvin understands to obtain between the experience of hope and the doctrine of justification. Chapter 4 concerns the experience of hope within the doctrine of sanctification. This chapter shows how for Calvin the experience of hope is inspired by and bound up with a particular set of meditative practices that I call “technologies of hope.” Examining these meditative practices in Calvin’s thought sheds fresh light on Calvin’s operative theological anthropology, which tends to favor a cognitivist construal of human nature, and draws attention to the ways in which Calvin’s account of Christian experience involved in meditation is bivalent and at times opaque. Finally, Chapter 5 begins a constructive conversation, putting Calvin’s theology of hope into dialogue with two contemporary accounts: psychologist C.R. Snyder’s theory of hope and Karen Kilby’s ethical concerns about narratives of hope as bestowing meaning of suffering in problematic ways.
Degree
thesis:*- Name dc:type.qualificationname
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
- Level dc:type.qualificationlevel
- Doctoral
- Grantor dc:publisher.institution
- University of Cambridge
- Year dc:date.issued
- 2025
Author and committee
dc:creator, dc:contributor.*- Author dc:creator
-
- Crelin, Hope
- Advisor dc:contributor.advisor
-
- Zahl, Simeon
Subjects
dc:subject × 13Rights
dc:rightsIdentifiers
dc:identifier.*- DOI dc:identifier.doi
- https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.121180
- OAI identifier oai:identifier
- oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/389149