Spe Salvi (Saved in Hope) - Encyclical Letter on Christian Hope

Let us put it very simply: man needs God, otherwise he remains without hope.

Entitled "Saved in Hope", the text of Spe Salvi is the Holy Father’s personal reflection on Christian hope. In this second encyclical, the Holy Father deals with the incompatibility between Christian hope and the individualism found within society. “Flowing into this self-critique of the modern age there also has to be a self-critique of modern Christianity…” he writes. This results in beautiful and profound meditations on Christian concepts of faith, eternal life, life as a relationship, individualism, being (for others), and hope and the modern age. The letter concludes with three prescriptive “Settings” for learning and practicing hope, and a final meditation on Mary, our “Star of Hope” on the human journey.

Using examples drawn from historical contexts to root each concept firmly in the present day, Benedict XVI moves easily from complex ideas drawn from the likes of Kantian philosophy to simpler, practical “Settings” for Learning and Practicing Hope toward the end of the work.

INDEX

• Introduction
• Faith is Hope
• The concept of faith-based hope in the New Testament and the early Church
• Eternal life – what is it?
• Is Christian hope individualistic?
• The transformation of Christian faith-hope in the modern age
• The true shape of Christian hope
• “Settings” for learning and practising hope
  • I. Prayer as a school of hope
  • II. Action and suffering as settings for learning hope
  • III. Judgement as a setting for learning and practising hope
• Mary, Star of Hope