Pedagogika nadziei w rodzinie

The aim of the article is to present the special role and significance of the pedagogy of hope within the family. The presentation of this issue is based on the method of cognition and argumentation developed by Saint Thomas Aquinas. On one hand, this approach seeks to identify the key causes of the possible loss of hope in current times and their impact on the functioning of the family community. From the perspective of these reflections, several important forms of such threats are highlighted, including fear related to all possible future threats, an epidemic of despair resulting from the process of constant dopamine overstimulation, a sense of loneliness in experiencing one’s own physical and spiritual suffering, awareness of one’s own mortality, existential sadness arising from spiritual void, an identity crisis, and the pathology of the zeitgeist. On the other hand, the article presents motivations for the possible discovery and restoration of hope in situations of existential crisis. These motivations—focused on the human person, their relationship with God and with others, as well as the meaning of time and history—are the fruit of the philosophical and theological thought of leading contemporary representatives of the philosophy of hope. The translation of these ideas into the language of everyday life, with particular attention to earlier analyses of the fundamental premises of the crisis of hope in the modern world, is reflected in the discussion of the key aspects of the pedagogy of hope and their application within the family community.