Was reading about the word 'salvation' and came across this example in the Collins English Dictionary:
salvation - the realization that Life, Truth, and Love are supreme and that they can destroy such illusions as sin, death, etc
The word is in context of Christian Science.
Why are those words capitalized? And if they wanted to emphasize them why not capitalize 'Sin' and 'Death' as well?
This is a usage specific to the religion of "Christian Science", a religion basically created by Mary Baker Eddy in 1870s.
Christian Science defines the Trinity as Life, Truth, and Love, which are three of the seven synonyms that Mrs. Eddy uses to describe God. The seven synonyms are Principle, Soul, Mind, Spirit, Life, Truth, and Love.
Christians, Jews, and others often capitalize any noun or pronoun use to refer to God. So you don't write, "God did this ... then he did that"; you write "then He did that". Or you might refer to God as the "Creator" rather than the "creator", etc. Miss Eddy decided that these 7 words were names or descriptions of God, and so she capitalized them when used in that context.
I suppose Christians might also capitalize these words if they used them to refer to God, like a Christian might write, "God is Truth" rather than "God is truth". But mainstream Christians do not see these 7 words as having any special significance like Christian Scientists do, that is, no more significance than any other word you might use to describe God.
In many Christian texts, God is capitalized, whereas his opponent, unless explicitly named, is often not (fallen angel, but Lucifer).
Life, Truth and Love are, in the context of Christianity three almost personified attributes of God (many things come in threes in Christendom!), and therefore they acquire a respectful capital.
The "illusions" mentioned are neither specific identifying attributes of the fallen angel, nor are they worthy of any respect that would warrant capitalization.
God and 'He'. In most modern Christian theological works God is now often referred to as 'he' not 'He'. In many college theological essays marks are deducted for the use of 'He'. This can cause some pain to some Christians who think the use of 'he' is somewhat insulting to God.
