Faith, Hope, Love
Overview
This volume is a collection of Josef Pieper’s famous treatises on the three theological virtues of faith, hope, and love. Each of these treatises was originally published as a separate work over a period of 37 years. On Hope was written in 1934 in response to the despair of that era. On Faith was derived from a series of lectures he gave in the late 1950s and early 1960s. His most difficult work, one that he struggled with for years and almost abandoned—was On Love. Pieper felt that it was the most important book he had written. He discusses not only the theological virtue of caritas-agape, but also of eros, sexuality, and even “love” of music and wine.
Top Highlights
“Before we, as believers, accept the testimony of another, we must be sure that he has authentic knowledge of those things that we accept on faith. If he himself is, in his turn, only a believer, then we are misplacing our reliance. It becomes clear, therefore, that this reliance itself, which is the decisive factor in the act of belief, must be founded upon some knowledge on the part of the believer if it is to be valid.” (Page 45)
“the fact of creation needs continuation and perfection by the creative power of human love” (Page 174)
“Once more, then: Toward what does the believer direct his will when he believes? Answer: Toward the warrantor and witness whom he affirms, loves, ‘wills’—insofar as he accepts the truthfulness of what that witness says, accepts it on his mere word. This wholly free, entirely uncoercible act of affirmation, which is enforced neither by the power of self-evident truth nor by the weight of argumentation; this confiding, acknowledging, communion-seeking submission of the believer to the witness whom he believes—this, precisely, is the ‘element of volition’ in belief itself.” (Page 39)
“One essential condition is this: that Someone exists who stands incomparably higher above the mature man than the latter stands above the immature man and that this Someone has spoken in a manner audible to the mature man.” (Page 33)
“If God is conceived as a personal Being, as a Someone rather than a Something, and a Someone who can speak, then there is no safety from—revelation.” (Page 61)
- Title: Faith, Hope, Love
- Author: Josef Pieper
- Publisher: Ignatius
- Print Publication Date: 1992
- Logos Release Date: 2020
- Pages: 299
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subject: Theological virtues
- ISBNs: 9780898706239, 0898706238
- Resource ID: LLS:FAITHHOPELOVE
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2024-03-25T19:41:36Z