“Can there be anyone in the western world”, asks Fr Bars in his introduction ti this book, “who does not know, or think he knows, what is meant by faith, hope and charity?” Fr Bars here clarifies and deepens our awareness of these there key virtues. His discussion is firmly grounded to the Scripture, the teaching of Saint Paul and the great Christian philosophers, but his range of references is widened to include non-Catholic theologians such as Kierkegaard and Nygren. Each virtue is considered by Fr Bars in detail beginning with faith and the act of belief which is seen as primarily an act of the understanding, an assent to the truth which God. The trials which faith undergoes, the relationship between the baptized infant and the believing adult are also discussed, together with the Church’s role as teacher. Fr. Bars establishes a basic distinction between divine hope, temporal hope and modern secular hope, going on to discuss the “trial” of hope – the world – and the relationship between Christian hope and the theories of Teilhard de Chardin and Marx. Charity is seen as an idea peculiar to Christianity, the goal and the source of supernatural life.