Faith, Hope and Love

Faith, hope, and love are central tropes in Christian teaching, and indeed are increasingly common in general vernacular, yet Swiss theologian Emil Brunner found the triad lacked the thorough theological study they demanded. These three words, Brunner argues, represent the totality of what it means to be Christian: faith as a receptable of God's timeless love, hope as our faith in what God has done in Christ, and the giving of love which makes humans truly human. To Brunner, faith, hope, and love are essential and total, reflecting the relation to Jesus in the three dimensions of time – the past, present, and future. Faith, Hope, and Love, originally delivered as the Earl Lectures in Berkeley, California, in 1955, therefore represents Brunner's accomplished expression on the significance and importance of these three values to Christians.