"But love is the real substance of faith and hope. We cannot say, God is faith; we cannot say, God is hope, but we can say, God is love. That is what God is, and that is what faith and hope are about. But love in itself is not a mere " relation to "; love, agape, is the thing itself. It is his presence, it is himself here and now in us. It is his being as our new being, his presence as our own present. Inasmuch as we have him, we have love, and inasmuch as we have love, agape, we have him and we are " present." This presence manifests itself in our relation to our fellow men, but also in the state of our own mind and heart. It is joy and peace as God's being is joy and peace.
Peace and joy are what everyone craves. That is true of every human being. But it is also true of every human being that his craving is not satisfied. Peace and joy can come into our hearts only by Christ, by God's own presence in them. There is no peace, within ourselves or with our neighbours, apart from reconciliation in Christ, because only if we are at peace with God can we have real peace in ourselves and with our fellow men. And peace with God we can have only through his forgiveness, through his taking away the burden of our past in the cross of Christ. Peace is the realization of his presence as our presence.
And joy! Joy is the feeling we have when we really are ourselves. But we can be ourselves only by being what God has created us to be — truly human. What makes us truly human is not reason, as the Greeks said; nor is it genius, or talent, or power, or intellect. All these can be very inhuman. It is only love in the sense of agape that makes us truly human. It is not cultural creativity but this simplest and deepest thing, agape, which makes us truly human. Giving love, not desiring love — spontaneous, unmotivated, unconditional love. That is what makes man truly human.
That is why only by having this love can we know real joy. The three are so closely connected as to be almost identical; joy, peace, and love — the three go together. They cannot be taken away from us by any circumstance, not even by death. And that is real presence. The one who is in God's love is at peace; he has joy, he has love, and he is truly present.
This is eternal life as experienced already in this temporal life. Its source and reality are in God's love as already given to faith, as expectation to be completed by hope, as a beginning of presence in our own love. God's being with us is shared by our being with our fellow men. This, then, is the unity in diversity of faith, hope, and love."
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Emil Brunner lived too close to the shadow of Karl Barth to be fully appreciated as the brilliant theologian and faithful Christian thinker that he undoubtedly was. Like all major theologians of previous generations, we have to read him to day with critical appreciation and intellectual humility. And with an absence of that 'chronological snobbery' C. S. Lewis identified as the sign of contemporary narrow mindedness - and theological short sightedness.
This is Advent, and there are plenty of possibilities for appropriate readings from Brunner's rich legacy. I've chosen this short, and now hard to find book, which contains three lectures delivered in 1955 in the United States. This is Brunner when most of his constructive theology and dogmatic positions were established and published.
By the way, that first paragraph could be a paraphrase of serial verses from I John: "God is love/ Whoever lives in love, lives in God, and God in him."
These three brief lectures (in published form under 80 pages) expound the spiritual and ethical fruits to be expected from his theological vision. The revelation of the love of God in Christ, incarnate, crucified, risen, has defining and transforming power that enables Christian life and existence, for each believer and for the community of the Church as the body of Christ.
This wee book is a treasure, containing the wisdom and faith of a theologian who takes time to ask and answer the question, "So what?" Faith, Hope, and Love, are the cardinal virtues. But to Brunner they are much more - they are hallmarks of grace. In digital terminology they are the barcode of discipleship, or QR codes for "Quick Recognition" of what Christian character and existence look like.
I find it deeply moving that late in his life, and the year he suffered a debilitating stroke, we have these three theological reflections on faith as trustful encounter with the living God, love as the gift of God poured into human hearts, and the hope of the Gospel which is "Christ's ultimate, direct, and manifest victory, the fulfilment of God's world purpose which is announced in the cross of Jesus Christ." (p.48)
For Brunner, the Advent of God in Christ is a historic fact, the pivotal point in the unfolding drama of redemption. In Bethlehem, "the hopes and fears of all the years" are held together by this hinge point in the history of the cosmos. On Calvary "hands that flung stars into space, to cruel nails surrendered. This is our God!"
Faith, hope and love, when expounded in the light of the Christian Gospel, are a threefold cord that holds together the tragedy of a fallen world and the eternal redemptive purpose revealed in the unique and decisive event, that "God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself."
Brunner's concluding paragraphs, quoted in full above, describe the implications and ultimate fulfilment of that Advent word, Immanuel, God with us. Brunner looks to a transformed future when "the dwelling of God is with humanity." Not yet, but on its way to fulfilment, because God is faithful, sovereign in love, and to be trusted to bring to fruition the loving wisdom of his promises and the true fulfilment of his eternal purpose.
These three lectures contain quite a lot on forgotten questions and discussions. And as in all his books, I frequently have quite large question marks in the margins! But the theological and ethical impetus of Brunner's thought remains urgent, spiritually relevant, and worth the patience it takes to read and learn from this too easily overlooked theologian. Late in life, Brunner is sharing his understanding of what it means to him to live in faith, hope and love.
NB: Faith, Hope and Love is available online. You can access and download it over here.
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