Faith, Hope, and Love

These essays consider the three traditional theological virtues-faith, hope, and love-alongside their opposites-doubt, despair, and hate. The volume includes contributions not just from philosophers of religion, but also from psychologists, sociologists, and film and literature scholars, to paint a complex and nuanced picture of these virtues, both how we might understand them, and how we can hope to embody them ourselves. And while these virtues make up a core part of Christian tradition, the essays here go far and wide in search of different cultural conceptions of these universal human concerns. Inquiries are made into these virtues in Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish, and Islamic thought, alongside philosophers including Aristotle, Hegel, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Levinas, and Murdoch. The resulting tapestry is often beautiful, sometimes horrific, but always thoroughly human.