Disputation — Bontempi, Palladium Theologicum V · from Schola Thomistica
Disputation I: On Faith
The SUN is not seen otherwise than by the light which it itself gives; nor does God suffer himself to be seen by another's light: Faith alone points the way from where it itself has come. This is that light created first in the first Microcosm, separating night from day, indeed the first-born of the heavenly virtues, and therefore to be set forth in the first place: On one side it shines forth, and on the other it darkens, like that pillar of cloud, bright indeed to the Israelites, but dark to the Egyptians: It is indeed a Mirror, veiled with much obscurity, yet with no stain of error, exhibiting the great in a small form: It is also that triangular Shield, which, showing God to us as three and one, extinguishes all the darts of the most wicked one: Taking it up in all things, we shall resist valiantly in faith, defending it with those reasons which it itself brings forth, in place of the virtues.
SOL non aliter, quam lumine, quod ipse dederit, videtur; nec aliena luce Deus patitur videri: Sola fides, unde ipsa venerit, eo viam demonstrat. Haec est lux illa in Microcosmo primo creata, noctem a die segregans, caelicarum virtutum quidem primogenita, ideo primo loco proponenda: Ex parte affulget, et ex parte offuscat, uti Columna illa nubis, Israëlitis sane lucida, AEgyptiis vero tenebrosa: Est quidem Speculum, multa obscuritate, nulla tamen erroris macula offusum, in modica specie, magna exhibens: Est etiam Scutum illud triangulum, quod Deum nobis trinum et unum ostendens, omnia nequissimi tela extinguit: Ipsum in omnibus sumentes, in fide fortiter resistemus, suis, quas parturit rationibus, ipsam pro virtutibus propugnantes.
Within this disputation
- Question I: What faith signifies, and what it is
- Question II: What the object of faith is
- Question III: Whether the object of faith is something complex
- Question IV: Whether the object of faith can be false
- Question V: Whether the object of faith can be evident scientifically
- Question VI: Whether faith is concerned with those things which are seen by vision in this life
- Question VII: Whether the articles of faith are evidently credible
- Question VIII: Whether the things to be believed are rightly arranged in articles
- Question IX: Whether the articles of faith have grown over the course of time
- Question X: Whether faith has grown as regards its light
- Question XI: Whether faith has grown in certitude
- Question XII: Whether the articles of faith are to be expounded by some authority which is an infallible teacher, and what it is
- Question XIII: What are the marks of the true Church, in which the authority of expounding faith resides
- Question XIV: What must be believed by the necessity of means
- Question XV: What things are to be believed by the necessity of precept
- Question XVI: Whether we are bound to confess faith, and when
- Question XVII: Whether it is lawful to dispute about faith, and when
- Question XVIII: Whether faith resides in the intellect
- Question XIX: Whether faith is perfected by charity, as by its form
- Question XX: Whether it is certain that faith remains without charity
- Question XXI: Whether, and how, faith is a virtue
- Question XXII: Whether faith is one virtue
- Question XXIII: Whether faith is the first of the virtues
- Question XXIV: Whether faith is more certain than any science, or than any intellectual habit
- Question XXV: Whether one can know with certainty that he has faith
- Question XXVI: In whom faith is found
- Question XXVII: Whether faith is a substantial gift of God
- Question XXVIII: Whether the difference between faith and other acts, natural as opposed to supernatural moral acts, always arises from the object
- Question XXIX: On the effects of faith
Question XXX: On the gift of understanding
- Doubt I: Whether understanding is a gift of the Holy Ghost
- Doubt II: Whether the gift of understanding can coexist with faith
- Doubt III: Whether the gift of understanding consists in the contemplation of the Creator and of the creature
- Doubt IV: Whether the gift of understanding is found in all who have grace, and whether in these alone
- Doubt V: What is the necessity and utility of the gift of understanding
- Doubt VI: Whether the sixth beatitude, Blessed are the clean of heart, corresponds to the gift of understanding
- Doubt VII: Whether faith, among the fruits of the Holy Ghost, corresponds to the gift of understanding