Faith, Hope, and Love - The Theological Virtues and Their Opposites

These essays consider the three traditional theological virtues-faith, hope, and love-alongside their opposites-doubt, despair, and hate, from a scholarly perspective. 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 of how we might understand them, and how we can hope to embody them ourselves.  While these virtues make up a core part of the Christian tradition, the chapters here go far and wide in search of different cultural conceptions of these universal human concerns. Inquiries are made into these virtues within 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.  This text appeals to students and researchers working in these fields. 

Chapter [9] is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

Troy DuJardin earned his Ph.D in the Boston University Graduate Program in Religion, and served as Assistant Director of the Boston University Institute for Philosophy and Religion from 2015 to 2020. He has also served as a writing fellow in the Boston University Core Curriculum, a teaching fellow in religious studies, and an instructor in philosophy.

M. David Eckel is Professor of Religion and Director of the Institute for Philosophy and Religion at Boston University. He has received the Metcalf Award for Teaching Excellence (1998), and has served as Distinguished Teaching Professor of the Humanities (2002-5), as well as Assistant Dean and Director of the Core Curriculum. He also has served on the Visiting Committee of Harvard Divinity School.