Chapter I. On the nature of theological faith

478. Various meanings of the word faith. In Sacred Scripture and in theology the word faith is taken in many and diverse senses; yet all of these can be reduced to two classes, namely, either they are referred to the will, or they designate acts or habits of the intellect.

Insofar as faith expresses a certain perfection or act of the will, three acceptations especially are to be noted:

1. Fidelity in promises. In this sense it is used by St. Paul: "Will their unbelief make void the faith of God? God forbid. But God is true."⁴

2. The promise itself. Thus St. Paul rebukes widows "because they have made void their first faith";⁵ for they vowed chastity, but did not keep the vow.

3. The estimation of probity. Thus, for example, it is said: "He who lays bare the secrets of a friend loses faith, and will not find a friend according to his mind."⁶

But insofar as faith is referred to the intellect, three acceptations likewise occur chiefly:

1. Conscience. Thus St. Paul says: "Everything that is not from faith is sin."⁷ Concerning this acceptation it was already said above, n. 307, in the treatise on conscience.

2. Veracity (credibility). Thus it is said: "Faith has perished and has been taken away from their mouth";⁸ and in almost the same sense a certain article in the Code of Law is superscribed: "On the faith of instruments."⁹

3. The revealed truths themselves. In this sense it is said: "You have not denied my faith";¹⁰ and in the Athanasian Creed: "Whosoever wishes to be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the Catholic faith," i.e. the Catholic truths.

Having left all these acceptations aside, faith is still taken in two ways, of which our concern in the present treatise is greater, namely: 1. faith is the habit by which we give assent or believe on account of the authority of the one speaking. If the one speaking, whom we believe, is man, there is human faith; but if that one speaking is God himself, then there is divine or theological faith.¹¹ 2. Protestants, when speaking of salvific faith, take the word faith for a firm trust by which someone thinks he has seized the merits of Christ.¹² By this faith alone, or trust without works, Protestants think a man is justified. The falsity of this opinion is shown below, n. 480.

Real definition. Especially a twofold definition of theological faith is given, one from St. Paul, the other from the Vatican Council.

⁴ Rom. 3, 3 sq.

⁵ 1 Tim. 5, 12.

⁶ Ecclus. 27, 17.

⁷ Rom. 14, 23.

⁸ Jer. 7, 28.

⁹ c. 1812-1818.

¹⁰ Apoc. 2, 13.

¹¹ Authors usually distinguish between divine and Catholic faith, simply divine faith, and ecclesiastical faith. Divine and Catholic (or public) faith is revelation made to the whole Church and extends to all dogmas defined by the Church. Simply divine (or private) faith is private revelation and extends to particular divine revelations which someone certainly had and therefore must believe, e.g. the revelations of St. Bridget. Ecclesiastical faith is that which must be given to those truths which are taught by the Church, but not as dogmas of faith, e.g. theological conclusions. For the rest, these expressions are not accepted by all in the same sense. The first who used the terminology "ecclesiastical faith" seems to have been the Archbishop of Paris, Péréfixe, in 1764. (Cf. Marin-Sola, L'évolution du Dogme catholique n. 230.)

¹² Thus, e.g. Reinhold Seeberg (Lehrbuch der Dogmengeschichte II 239) explains Luther's opinion: "Faith is thus not a theoretical holding-for-true, but it is the practical confidence that we ourselves, through Christ's work, are in grace with God."

479. Definition of St. Paul: "Faith is the substance of things to be hoped for, the evidence of things not appearing."¹³ St. Thomas¹⁴ observes concerning this definition: "All other definitions, whatever are given concerning faith, are explanations of this one which the Apostle sets down." Indeed this Pauline definition has not been proposed in philosophical form, but it can easily be reduced to this form under these words: Faith is a habit of the mind, by which eternal life is begun in us (the substance of things to be hoped for), causing our intellect firmly to assent to things not appearing (evidence is the same as firm conviction).

Definition of the Vatican Council: "Faith is a supernatural virtue by which, with the grace of God inspiring and assisting, we believe the things revealed by him to be true, not because of the intrinsic truth of the things, seen by the natural light of reason, but because of the authority of God himself revealing, who can neither be deceived nor deceive."¹⁵

For explaining these two definitions more fully, one must treat separately of the act and of the habit or virtue of faith.

¹³ Hebr. 11, 1.

¹⁴ S. theol. 2, 2, q. 4, a. 1.

¹⁵ Conc. Vatic. sess. 3, Const. de fide cath. c. 3 (Denz. n. 1789).