"More tolerable is the sky without stars, or spring without flowers, than a person without faith and hope." Writing a little less than two decades before the turn of the present century, Fr. Daniel Gouvalis expressed this view of one of the most fundamental and critical problems of our time-namely, not only the dearth of faith in many people (or its weakness in those not lacking it altogether), but also the absence of hope that all too often accompanies its loss. Indeed, it is a condition that makes life intolerable for so many in an increasingly complex and pressurized world,...