First Part: On the Object of Faith

St. Thomas, II-II, q. 1, a. 1.

664. The object of faith is first truth, God, as will be proved below. He Himself is first truth in a threefold way: a) in being, because His essence is the first being and therefore the first eternal truth; b) in knowing, because His wisdom from eternity knows all things as they are; c) in speaking, because by His veracity from eternity He has the highest propensity for speaking the truth, if He speaks.

665. The object of faith is twofold: material and formal. - For in every power and habit, just as in every act, a twofold object is distinguished:

1. The material object, or that which is actually attained, the matter about which the act is concerned, for example, for cognition, that which is known, such as a conclusion. Moreover the material object is twofold: for there is something which is first, through itself and by reason of itself, attained, which consequently is called the primary object, and by reason of which the other things are attained, which are called the secondary material object.

2. There is had the formal object, or that through which, by means of which, the material object is immediately attained, or the proximate motive on account of which it is attained; for example, for cognition, the medium through which something is immediately known, such as the syllogism by which the conclusion is known.

Let the example be in vision: the secondary material object is the things seen, the primary material object is the colored thing, the formal object is light.

666. Observations. - 1. Lest confusion arise, it should be noted that certain theologians call the primary material object the formal object which; but these call the formal object the formal object by which, or the formal motive or formal reason.¹

¹ For the primary object is the formal reason under which, or that by means of which, the secondary object is attained, and thus it is as it were the formal object with respect to the secondary object. Nevertheless it is that which is attained, indeed first and per se; whence it is better called material than formal, so that the designation "formal object" may be reserved for that which is only formal, or that by which we attain. And St. Thomas speaks thus here in article 1.

2. In catechisms, the material object is designated by the particle what, for example, when it is asked what we ought to believe; and the formal object is expressed by the particle why or wherefore, for example, why we ought to believe.