Which is more important: Hope, Truth, Compassion or Faith?

Question

Or is there another value that outranks these? Tell me.

Charity comes with a compassionate heart, does it not?
I agree: that is supremely important.

QuiteNewHere: I knew nothing of theology when I asked the question...but your answer piques my interest, assuredly.
As for empathy - I think that may be implied by compassion.

Answer 1

Hope is certainly most important. Living and working for a living may contain a sense of hope and a being oriented towards the future with a wish for more life, with dreams and even with reveries about one's future.

Truth may be limited, uncertain, possibly requiring a lot of work to be ascertained and to give some glow. Truth may end up being seen and lived as brutal.

Faith can be blind and so it can be confining to one's function of being faithful without the free faculty of doubt, without the freedom of being able or allowed to ask questions.

Compassion may mostly be motivated by one's guts and so even limited by the tyranny of one's blunt sentiments.

Hope may be linked to a teleological sense. Having hope may mean standing and considering a future glowing horizon with a will or wish to come to live face to face with that horizon after a good development and even after a conscious metamorphosis that may make you taste the apotheosis of life, with a strong wish for more and more fruitful life.

Answer 2

The Root of Human Values

If you are referring to values, REASON is definitely the most important and the root cause of all the others. It is through reasoning that you assess your emotions. Your emotions are consequences of the concepts and education you have received. If you are hopeful, you owe that to the attitude you acquired in your childhood, yor family and your community. The same can be said for being charitable, compassionate, faithful, truthful, etc. You cannot cammand at will any of these emotions. If you do not feel compassion, you cannot command yourself to be compassionate; if you do not believe in something or somebody, you cannot command yourself to have faith; if you don't feel hopeful, you cannot tell yourself artificially that you have hope. That's the nature of ALL emotions, including love.

This is so because feelings are quick evaluation-responses to experiences based on the concepts (reasoning) we have acquired thus far. Change the concepts, change your philosophy, your point of view, your reasoning and your emotions will follow accordingly!

That is why the emotions for a toy, the desire for something, the love, passion, hope, faith we have when we are at one stage of intellectual development (say in childhood) changes completely when we grow up, when we acquire more knowledge, when our reasoning is more logical and founded in facts, rather than wishes.

Without REASON we are not humans, and all the emotions in the world will not make us humans. We may be faithful like a dog, but without reason, we can't tell why we are faithful, compassionate, charitable, loving, or truthful and we can't tell if all these beautiful emotions are in the service of someone like Hitler.

Answer 3

All of the above. Theology books list charity in that list as well.
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Faith and hope imply a certain imperfection: since faith is of things unseen, and hope, of things not possessed.

Augustine says (De Doctr. Christ. i): "A man cannot love what he does not believe to exist. But if he believes and loves, by doing good works he ends in hoping." Therefore it seems that faith precedes charity, and charity hope.


Augustine (De Moribus Eccl. xv) shows how the four cardinal virtues are the "order of love." Now love is charity, which is a theological virtue. Therefore the moral virtues are not distinct from the theological.

Answer 4

Hope overrides them all, because Faith could be used to someone else's advantage, and Compassion is the same as Faith, and Truth could get rid of Hope, like osmeone may let the truth dawn, and if it is a hard situation, you give up hope, and hope is the only thing to keep you going! And when there is no Hope, all is lost

Answer 5

-Truth can be subjective to a certain person, time, and place. It is easily manipulated.
-Hope is the weaker form of faith. It is only used to cover up weakness.
-Compassion and love in excess can be a bad thing. One can only give and take so much.
-So faith would have to be the most important. After all, how much faith you have in yourself and your life's philosophy is what moves you forward.

Answer 6

Happiness. ♥

wen u hope* u atleast have something to look forward to
wen u tell the truth* u feel good abt urself
wen u feel compassion* for others u always wish for the best (hope)
wen u have faith* u always believe in watever satisfies u

Answer 7

The truth shall set you free.....If you are an honest person, hope, compassion and faith will come right along with it.

Answer 8

They're all equally important but love would the only thing I can think of that outranks them all.

Answer 9

Okay, I'm a big trumpeter of hope coz I am FULL of hope all the time and always chasing it. But...hope also is DEPRESSING when it's all you've got and you're trying to get more of it.

I'd say...compassion.

Answer 10

Faith is the most important one to me. With faith all things are possible.