The Epistles of Paul to the Virtue of Hope



The Epistles of Paul to the Virtue of Hope

Introduction

The Epistles of Paul is a set which includes thirteen letters on the subject of Christian bible, also known as New Testament. These letters were written by Paul, a Christian Apostle; however a disagreement is found that whether or not these letters were actually written by Paul. In any case, these letters provide the details about early Christianity including the fundamental beliefs and controversies. There are three fundamental virtues which provide the basis of moral life to the Christians; namely, faith, hope and charity. This essay describes the Epistles of Paul in the context of Virtue of Hope.

Discussion

The epistles of Paul have an accepted importance in the Christian history, because these letters were written by the apostle during his journeys, while he developed the churches (Alexander, 2001). These letters were mainly written to the individual who were related to the churches where Paul visited or was about to visit. In order to clearly understand the epistles written by Paul, it becomes necessary for the reader to be also aware about the situation in which they were written. However, the range of topics which these epistles cover is not very wide and can be easily divided in few themes. These themes mainly focused on the virtue of hopes, which are one of the major sources to reduce the distance between man and God.

It is believed in Christianity that the three virtues of faith, hope and charity are instilled into the faithful peoples' souls by God. These virtues help the people to live and behave as His children so that they get success in their eternal lives. The virtue of hope depends on the faith on God; it makes the people happy by believing that real success or happiness lies in achieving the eternal life, or entering the kingdom of God, where the life and happiness is permanent. As, the people begin to prefer the eternal life, over their worldly desires, their satisfaction level as well as mental peace increases (Legion of Mary, 2007).

The theological virtue of hope mainly provides the people with the feeling of oneness In order to be able to lead the moral life easily, everyone needs some sort of transcendent hope; the hope which is not dependent on the human capacity but on the promises of Christ. The requirement of ...