Josef Pieper, perhaps the most popular Thomist philosopher of the twentieth century, was schooled in the Greek
classics and the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas. He also studied philosophy, law, and sociology, and he has been
a professor at the University of Munster, West Germany. His numerous books have been widely praised by both the
secular and religious press.
Summary
This volume, three separate books in one edition, 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 thirty-seven years, and here they are brought together in English for the first time.
The first of the three that he wrote, On Hope, was written in 1934 in response to the general feeling of despair
of those times. His "philosophical treatise" 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 his work On Love. Pieper now feels that this is the most important book he has written. He discusses not
only the theological virtue of caritas-agape, but also of eros, sexuality, and even "love" of music and
wine.
