My eighty-seven-year-old mother recently found out that the non-smoker’s lung cancer she had treated thirteen years ago is now back. My mother, a godly woman, told me that since this diagnosis, she has had even sweeter communion with the Lord. That’s not because she has learned to be more positive in an earthly sense. Physically speaking, the doctor has not given her any long-term reasons for positivity (6-12 months). It is because she has Christian hope.
Unfortunately, hope appears to be a neglected virtue among Christian students. Our research team recently performed a study in which we collected 6,494 goals from over 2,197 college students, most of whom were Christian, at over twenty different universities. Not one student mentioned wanting to be more hopeful as a goal in the almost 6,500 goals listed. For Christians, that’s a major problem. Granted, when you ask students to think of a goal, they usually think of something they themselves achieve. But that may be one source of the problem.
In contrast, one of the surprising findings from our study was how often students mentioned wanting to learn to be more positive. Sixty-three students (3%) listed this goal in some form, such as the following: “maintain positivity,” “remain positive in all situations,” “stay positive,” etc. Now, fortunately, this was not as much as love (n=165) or kind/kindness (n=137), but it was enough to catch my eye. Moreover, I find it particularly noteworthy in light of their lack of interest in cultivating hope.
The Source?
From where do students get this concern with positivity? It does not necessarily come from the Bible. After all, the word “positive” is not even in most English translations of the Bible (e.g., ESV, NIV, RSV). It appears to be a universal desire. The scholar who has investigated this issue the most, Stanford professor Jeanne Tsai, has found that people across the cultures she has studied generally want to feel positive more than negative.[1]
Yet, there is also a cultural component to it. European Americans, Tsai found, amplify that desire in comparison not only to Chinese but also to Chinese Americans. In another study, Tsai found that “North American sympathy cards contain more positive and fewer negative words as well as more living versus dying images (e.g., living flowers versus shriveled leaves) than do German sympathy cards.”[2] My wife and I find that most immigrants and international students with whom we work note that this emphasis on positivity is peculiarly American.
American positivity likely has numerous helpful economic, mental, and even religious outcomes. In addition, I would hypothesize that it stems from a Christian worldview in certain ways. But we should not confuse it with the more important virtue that Christians should acquire. That virtue is hope.
Positivity versus the Virtue of Hope
Hope is one of the trickiest of virtues because of its distinctive Christian substance and direction. When looking to measure hope among Baylor students in 2018, we looked through a variety of scales but found them all wanting. Instead, they often measured a general form of optimistic problem solving. The most well-known theory and instrument was developed by C.R. Snyder, who defines hope as“the perceived capability to derive pathways to desired goals, and motivate oneself via agency thinking to use those pathways” (p. 249).[3] In Snyder’s approach, hope is something one gives one’s self. One finds this characteristic in his Adult Trait Hope Scale, in which virtually all of the metrics involve responding to “I” questions (see below).
Adult Trait Hope Scale
Directions: Read each item carefully. Using the scale shown below, please select the number that best describes YOU and put that number in the blank provided. 1. = Definitely False 2. = Mostly False 3. = Somewhat False 4. = Slightly False 5. = Slightly True 6. = Somewhat True 7. = Mostly True 8. = Definitely True
___ 1. I can think of many ways to get out of a jam.
___ 2. I energetically pursue my goals.
___ 3. I feel tired most of the time
___ 4. There are lots of ways around any problem.
___ 5. I am easily downed in an argument.
___ 6. I can think of many ways to get the things in life that are important to me.
___ 7. I worry about my health.
___ 8. Even when others get discouraged, I know I can find a way to solve the problem.
___ 9. My past experiences have prepared me well for my future.
___10. I’ve been pretty successful in life.
___11. I usually find myself worrying about something.
___12. I meet the goals that I set for myself
Now, I am not saying that learning to think one’s way out of a jam and figuring out how to solve problems are not important skills. In fact, learning those skills could help our students become more positive. Yet, if we are to help our students with the Christian virtue of hope, which they do not show evidence of emphasizing among their goals, we need to take another approach.
Defining and Measuring Christian Hope
Christian hope is different. Hope comes not from one’s problem-solving abilities but from God. Fortunately, since I last looked at the variety of psychological scales measuring hope in 2018, some scholars have produced a new measure of Christian hope, or what they call “eschatological hope.” They define Christian eschatological hope as “the anticipation that (a) God will make all things new, (b) raising people to everlasting life with God in joyful celebration, (c) including people from every culture and nation, (d) ending all personal pain and suffering, (e) eliminating all societal evil and harm, and (f) bringing reconciliation and healing to all of creation.”[4] This approach is much different than motivating one’s self to think of different problem-solving pathways.
In light of the complete absence of “hope as a goal” among the students we surveyed, I encourage you to think about using their measure as a pedagogical tool to teach Christian hope. You could also ask students to rate themselves at the beginning of a semester and the end of a semester to see if the teaching had any influence. Here is the instrument:[5]
For each statement below, please choose the response that honestly reflects YOUR ACTUAL EXPERIENCE (rather than what you think you should be like)… Choose the response that best represents HOW YOU TYPICALLY ARE.
Note: If a statement does not fit at all with your beliefs or experience, then you would select “Not at all like me” for that item. If a statement fits somewhat with your typical beliefs or experiences, then you would select “Somewhat like me” for that item.
| TYPICALLY | Not at all like me (1) | A little like me (2) | Somewhat like me (3) | A lot like me (4) | Exactly like me (5) |
| 1. God is the source of my hope. | |||||
| 2. I am confident that God will overcome evil. | |||||
| 3. I believe that God will ultimately draw together people from every place and culture. | |||||
| 4. I am sure that God will ultimately reconcile all things. | |||||
| 5. I trust that God will remove suffering for eternity. | |||||
| 6. I believe I will live with God forever. |
It would be interesting to think about how one might go about teaching these six elements, so that they become second nature (and thus demonstrate they are a virtue and not simply background beliefs or senses). It would also be helpful to discuss with students why they rate themselves low on certain elements of the scale.
Of course, as with any self-report scale, one must recognize that the respondent could find a divide between their cognitive beliefs (items #3 and #6) and their emotions. They may also think they have confidence or surety (#2 and #5), but when faced with a tragedy or imminent death, like my mother, they may realize they do not.
Overall, we need to help students replace a general longing for positivity with substantive reasons for hope that go beyond wishful thinking or their problem-solving ability. Then, whether living their life or facing the end, they can practice true hope. Certainly, we should pray as Paul did, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 15:3).
[1] Jeanne L. Tsai, “Ideal Affect in Daily Life: Implications for Affective Experience, Health, and Social Behavior.” Current Opinion in Psychology, vol. 17 (October 2017): 118. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2017.07.004
[2] Tsai, “Ideal Affect in Daily Life,” 121.
[3] C.R. Snyder, “Hope Theory: Rainbows in the Mind,” Psychological Inquiry, 13, no. 4 (2002): 249–275. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15327965PLI1304_01
[4] Charlotte van Oyen-Witvliet, M. Elizabeth Lewis Hall, Julie J. Exline, David C. Wang, Lindsey M. Root Luna, Daryl R. Van Tongeren, David G. Myers, Alexis D. Abernethy, and John D. Witvliet, “The Eschatological Hope Scale: Construct Development and Measurement of Theistic Eschatological Hope,” Journal of Psychology and Christianity, 41, no. 1 (2022): 18-19.
[5] van Oyen-Witvliet, et al., “The Eschatological Hope Scale,” 34
