Section — Prümmer, Manuale Theologiae Moralis
§ 2. On the object of the act of faith
Preliminary note. A threefold object is usually distinguished, namely material, formal which (it is also called the subject or object of attribution), and formal by which, or under which.
The material object is everything about which a power, habit, or act is occupied.
The formal object which is that which is first and per se attained by a power, habit, or act, and by reason of which all other things are attained.
The formal object by which, or under which, is that by means of which the formal object which is attained; - e.g. the material object of the visual power is all corporeal things; the formal object which is color, because that which the eye first perceives is color; the formal object by which is light, because no thing can be seen unless it is illuminated.
482. Proposition 1. The formal object which, or object of attribution, of faith is the First Truth in being, or God himself as exceeding natural reason (but not God as he can be known by natural reason, e.g. in Theodicy). Thus is the unanimous opinion of theologians.
It is proved. That is the formal object which of some act or habit which is principally attained by it, and by reason of which all other objects are attained. But the first truth, or God, is that which is first and principally attained by faith; but all other things, such as the humanity of Christ, the efficacy of the sacraments, eternal retribution, etc., are believed in order to God. Therefore God as God is the formal object which, or of attribution, of faith.
The same can also be shown in this way: The beatitude of man consists in the vision of the divine essence, or of God as he is in himself; but faith is already the beginning of that beatitude ("the substance of things to be hoped for," as St. Paul says). Therefore faith must be occupied first and principally about the very essence of God.31
31 St. Thomas writes to the point: "If we consider materially the things to which faith assents, it is not only God himself, but also many other things, which nevertheless do not fall under the assent of faith except insofar as they have some order to God; namely insofar as, through some effects of divinity, man is aided toward tending into divine fruition. And therefore also from this side the object of faith is the first truth, insofar as nothing falls under faith except in order to God, just as also the object of medicine is health, because medicine considers nothing except in order to health" (S. theol. 2, 2, q. 1, a. 1).
483. Proposition 2. The formal object by which, or under which, or the internal motive of faith, is the authority of God revealing, or the first truth in speaking.
This doctrine is drawn from Sacred Scripture; it has always been handed down by the Holy Fathers and by the Scholastics; and it has been defined by the Vatican Council. Every Christian, when asked why he believes, immediately answers: because the articles of faith are the word of God revealing. Therefore the proposition is proved:
From Sacred Scripture. St. Paul says: "Therefore faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ";32 and Christ himself says: "I confess to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and have revealed them to little ones."33 Hence St. Paul, praising the faith of the Thessalonians, writes: "Therefore we also give thanks to God without ceasing, because when you had received from us the word of the hearing of God, you received it not as the word of men, but, as it truly is, the word of God, who works in you who have believed."34
From the authority of the Holy Fathers and Doctors. Let the single testimony of St. Thomas stand for all:35 "In faith, if we consider the formal reason of the object, it is nothing other than the first truth. For faith, of which we are speaking, assents to something only because it is revealed by God. Hence faith rests upon the divine truth itself as upon its medium."
From the Vatican Council: "If anyone says that divine faith is not distinguished from natural knowledge about God and moral things, and therefore that for divine faith it is not required that revealed truth be believed on account of the authority of God revealing, let him be anathema."36
Since, therefore, the act of faith is assent on account of the authority of God revealing, it follows that the formal object by which, or the intrinsic motive of faith, is constituted by a twofold truth, namely: God is infallible in knowing and speaking, and: God has revealed this thing.37 Man ordinarily knows the fact of revelation through the proposition of the Church; yet this proposition does not enter into the formal object by which of faith. For true divine faith can be had without the proposition of the Church, namely through private divine revelations granted to some saints, e.g. the Patriarchs, Prophets, Apostles. Hence also, when the Church dogmatically defines a thing previously disputable, e.g. the immaculate conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, it does nothing other than authentically remove doubt concerning the fact of divine revelation already existing for a long time. Therefore the proposition of the Church is indeed the rule, but not the intrinsic motive of divine faith.
Proposition 3. The material object of faith is everything truly and formally revealed by God.
32 Rom. 10, 17.
33 Matt. 11, 25.
34 1 Thess. 2, 13.
35 S. theol. 2, 2, q. 1, a. 1.
36 Sess. 3, can. de fide cath. 3, 2 (Denz. n. 1811).
37 See Chr. Pesch, Prael. dogm. t. VIII, prop. 13.
484. It is proved. The material object of some act or habit is everything which is attained by that act or habit, and indeed under the light of the formal object by which. But God has revealed and proposes to us to be believed, first, himself and his perfections, and besides many other things. Therefore all these revealed things pertain to the material object of faith. The Vatican Council38 designated the material object of faith in these words: "By divine and Catholic faith all those things are to be believed which are contained in the written or handed-down word of God and are proposed by the Church, whether by solemn judgment or by the ordinary and universal magisterium, to be believed as divinely revealed." - By solemn judgment (of an ecumenical council or of the Roman Pontiff speaking ex cathedra),39 dogmatic definitions themselves (e.g. the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary), but by the universal magisterium also other truths (e.g. the eternity of the punishments of hell), are proposed to us to be believed. All and only those things are the object of faith which have certainly been revealed by God. Therefore every divine word is the object of faith.
A twofold revelation is usually distinguished: one formal, the other virtual. Something is formally revealed either a) explicitly, when namely it has been announced to us by God in conceived and clear words, e.g. the Trinity of divine persons; or b) implicitly, when it has not indeed been said by God in express words, but nevertheless is formally and without discourse included in another truth certainly revealed. Thus, e.g., it has been explicitly revealed that Christ assumed a true human nature; implicitly contained in this revelation is that Christ had a body and a soul. All those things which are revealed either explicitly or implicitly are contained under the material object of divine faith.
Virtual revelation is occupied about the so-called theological conclusions, which are deduced by discourse properly so called from two premises, of which one is of faith, the other is certainly known from human reason.
Theologians unanimously teach that the credible object is constituted by formal revelation, whether explicit or implicit. The reason is that revealed truths of this kind are truly the word of God. But theologians are by no means in agreement whether virtual revelation also suffices for this, that some truth be believed by divine faith (even previously to a definition of the Church perhaps supervening). Melchior Cano,40 Vasquez,41 Ripalda,42 Maurus,43 and others teach the affirmative opinion. Suarez,44 Lugo,45 the Salmanticenses,46 and commonly Thomists teach the negative opinion. This opinion indeed seems to be better, because for establishing such a theological conclusion there concur both divine revelation and human reason. Therefore the motive of believing it is not the divine authority alone, but also the authority of human reason. But the object of faith is believed from divine authority alone.47 If, however, the Church by her infallible magisterium has defined something virtually revealed, e.g. the immortality of the soul, then certainly that is to be believed by divine faith.
In particular cases formal revelation is often distinguished with difficulty from virtual revelation. Thus, e.g., theologians do not agree whether the following propositions are formally revealed, and therefore to be believed by divine faith:
This Supreme Pontiff (Pius XI) has been legitimately elected successor of St. Peter in the primacy and therefore is infallible.
This man born and not yet baptized is in original sin.
This baptized infant is in the state of sanctifying grace.
For the rest, in practice controversies of this kind bring little utility, since the cited propositions and other similar ones are altogether certain, indeed also to be believed by ecclesiastical faith; and without doubt he would sin gravely who pertinaciously denied them.
38 Sess. 3, Const. de fide cath. c. 3 (Denz. n. 1792).
39 Cf. Cod. iur. can. c. 1323.
40 De loc. theol. l. 6, c. 8 ad 10, § "Sed id postremo," and l. 12, c. 5 near the end.
41 In 1, disp. 5, c. 3, n. 6-8.
42 De fide disp. 8, sect. 3, n. 44.
43 3, q. 140, n. 7.
44 De fide disp. 3, sect. 11, n. 7.
45 De fide disp. 1, sect. 13, n. 258 and 261.
46 De fide disp. 11, dub. 4, n. 144.
47 Cf. Chr. Pesch, Prael. dogm. VIII, n. 258 sqq.
485. Scholion 1. On symbols and on the profession of faith. As appears from the words of the Vatican Council just cited, the whole object of faith is contained in the written and handed-down word of God, or in Sacred Scripture and in Tradition; but this whole divine revelation was handed over to the Church to be guarded and explained, and therefore it is called the deposit of faith; a brief but authentic summary of it is contained in diverse symbols and in the so-called professions of faith. Symbol by force of the name signifies collection or token (συμβολή or σύμβολον). A symbol of faith was necessary so that faith could more easily be proposed to all and known by all. There are indeed several symbols of faith, but three are more principal: 1. the Apostles' Symbol, which now is usually divided into twelve articles; this division was not always in use, whence St. Thomas48 divides it into fourteen articles and indicates another division as secondary. 2. The second more principal symbol, which is called by St. Thomas the symbol of the Fathers, is the Niceno-Constantinopolitan, because it was begun by the Fathers in the Council of Nicaea and enlarged in the Council of Constantinople (it is usually said in the Mass). 3. The third is called Athanasian, although more probably it was composed not by St. Athanasius but by a Latin author toward the end of the fifth century. It begins "Whosoever wishes to be saved." - To the symbols there have been added professions of faith, of which the more celebrated is that which, against the heresies of Luther and Calvin, was prescribed by Pius IV and afterward enlarged by Pius IX, and is still in use before the reception of sacred orders and of several ecclesiastical offices.49
48 S. theol. 2, 2, q. 1, a. 6.
49 Cf. below n. 506.
486. Scholion 2. On the analysis and genesis of the act of faith. Just as chemical analysis is the dissolution of some body into its elements, so the analysis of faith is the resolution of it into its ultimate principles. The ultimate and essential principle of the act of faith is its formal object by which, or its intrinsic motive. Therefore theologians ask what is the ultimate reason why we believe; for it is certain that the formal object of faith is the authority of God revealing. Moreover, how can we know that God has truly revealed some truth? If someone said: from Sacred Scripture or from the proposition of the Church, immediately the question returns: Whence do we know that Sacred Scripture contains genuine divine revelation, or that the Church is infallible in proposing articles of faith? We must answer: Because God has revealed it so. Therefore we would have a manifest vicious circle. For solving this difficulty, now for several centuries several responses, and those by no means agreeing among themselves, have been thought out. Alois Schmid50 enumerates more than forty diverse opinions. - In so great a diversity of opinions, of which none is certain, and which there is no time to enumerate, it suffices briefly to note the following:
Before faith there is prerequired certain knowledge of the authority of God and of the fact of revelation. This knowledge is usually called the preambles of faith,51 because it precedes faith and can be acquired by the natural light of reason. The fact of revelation must necessarily be known before someone can elicit the act of faith. For how could someone believe some truth as divinely revealed, unless he first certainly knew that God truly revealed this truth?
486. Hence proposition (21) was condemned by Innocent XI: "The supernatural assent of faith, and useful for salvation, stands with only probable knowledge of revelation, indeed with fear by which someone fears lest God has not spoken."52 According to the ordinary mode of revelation, the fact is usually known through instruction received from parents and teachers, and especially through the proposition of the Church.
Moreover the so-called "motives of credibility" can be known by natural reason. The motives of credibility are, chiefly, miracles and prophecies, and the Church herself. The Vatican Council writes to the point:53 "In order that the obedience of our faith might be consonant with reason, God willed that, with the internal helps of the Holy Spirit, there be joined external arguments of his revelation, namely divine facts, and especially miracles and prophecies, which, since they clearly show God's omnipotence and infinite knowledge, are most certain signs of divine revelation and accommodated to the understanding of all. Wherefore both Moses and the Prophets and most of all Christ the Lord himself produced many and most manifest miracles and prophecies, and concerning the Apostles we read: 'But they, going forth, preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word by the signs that followed ...'54 Moreover, the Church even by herself, namely on account of her admirable propagation, eminent sanctity, and inexhaustible fruitfulness in all good things, on account of Catholic unity and unconquered stability, is a certain great and perpetual motive of credibility and an irrefragable testimony of her divine legation. By this it happens that she herself, as 'a sign lifted up among the nations,'55 both invites to herself those who have not yet believed, and makes her sons more certain that the faith which they profess rests upon a most firm foundation."
Nevertheless all these motives of credibility, although they cause faith to be reasonable, nevertheless do not pertain to the internal and specifying motive of it; for they can be understood by natural reason, and therefore can beget nothing except a purely natural act and merely natural certainty. Moreover, the certainty of faith must be supernatural. Therefore all motives of credibility are only something extrinsically attracting, but not something intrinsically and efficaciously and sufficiently inducing one to give the firm assent of faith. But that which intrinsically and efficaciously causes the assent of faith is divine grace, which God bestows according to his good pleasure. St. Thomas56 clearly and briefly expresses this truth in this way: "As to the assent of man to those things which are of faith, a twofold cause can be considered: one indeed inducing externally, such as a miracle seen, or the persuasion of a man inducing to faith; neither of which is a sufficient cause. For of those seeing one and the same miracle and hearing the same preaching, some believe and some do not believe. And therefore it is necessary to posit another interior cause, which moves man interiorly to assenting to those things which are of faith. But the Pelagians posited this cause to be only the free choice of man; and on account of this they said that the beginning of faith is from us; namely insofar as from us it is that we are prepared to assent to those things which are of faith, but the consummation of faith is from God, through whom there are proposed to us those things which we ought to believe. But this is false; because since man, by assenting to those things which are of faith, is elevated above his own nature, it is necessary that this be in him from a supernatural principle moving interiorly, which is God. And therefore faith as to assent, which is the principal act of faith, is from God moving interiorly through grace." From this doctrine of the Angelic Doctor it appears lucidly how great is the influence both of grace and of the will in the assent of faith.
486. Hence the same holy Doctor says: "Although that which is on the part of the will can be called accidental to the intellect, nevertheless it is essential to faith."57 For "the intellect of one believing is determined to one thing, not by reason, but by the will, and therefore here assent is taken for an act of the intellect according as it is determined by the will to one thing."58 Indeed he says: "But in the knowledge of faith the will has the principal place; for the intellect assents through faith to those things which are proposed because it wills, and not because it is necessarily drawn by the evidence itself of the truth."59 From all these things it can also be understood why many, although they are endowed with the best talent and have the most efficacious motives of credibility, nevertheless do not believe; for good will is lacking to them, and therefore grace also is lacking. From this likewise it shines forth why all Christians are bound to pray to God that he increase and conserve faith in their hearts, since it does not depend on natural powers to conserve or increase this virtue.
Therefore the genesis of the act of faith is this: Man, from instruction, preaching, study, or other means, understands that God exists and that he has revealed several truths, which indeed are found in Sacred Scripture or in Tradition. That all these truths have truly been revealed by the most truthful God is manifested to man by the so-called motives of credibility (credenditatis). The notions which man acquires up to this point do indeed prepare, but in no way enter into the supernatural act of faith itself. With these things presupposed, God mercifully bestows upon a man rightly disposed the light of faith, or grace, which a) illuminates the intellect for sufficiently knowing the object both material and formal by which of faith; b) principally implants in the will the pious affection of credulity, by which there is commanded to the intellect a most firm assent to truths, although still obscure and imperfectly known.
From what has been said, we briefly respond to the very celebrated controversy concerning the ultimate analysis of the act of faith in this way: The objective motive of the act of faith is the authority of God revealing, not known but believed. But this objective motive is believed most firmly, yet freely, on account of the supernatural light of faith, which both moves the will and illuminates the intellect; or in other words: The assent of faith is resolved formally into the authority of God revealing, dispositively into the motives of credibility, directively into the authority of the Church proposing, effectively into supernatural grace, which flows into the intellect and will. The whole difficulty in this analysis seems to have arisen because many theologians did not sufficiently notice that the act of faith is born not from discourse but from simple understanding. - If the genesis and analysis of the act of faith is perceived thus, already all difficulties seem to vanish, and the act of faith remains totally supernatural both on the part of the object and on the part of the principle.60
50 Untersuchungen über den letzten Gewissheitsgrund des Offenbarungsglaubens (1879).
51 The preambles of faith are taken by some authors for all things which precede the act of faith; but better, with St. Thomas (S. theol. 1, q. 2, a. 2 ad 1), they are restricted to those things "which can be known about God through natural reason," and which are usually the object of Theodicy.
52 Denz. n. 1171.
53 Sess. 3, Const. de fide cath. c. 3 (Denz. n. 1790, 1794).
54 Mark 16, 20.
55 Is. 11, 12.
56 S. theol. 2, 2, q. 6, a. 1.
57 De verit. q. 14, a. 3 ad 10.
58 S. theol. 2, 2, q. 2, a. 1 ad 3.
59 Contra gent. l. 3, c. 40.
60 Whoever desires more on the analysis of faith should go to Wilmers, De fide divina libri quattuor, prop. 13, 69-80, or Alois Schmid, Untersuchungen etc., or Garrigou-Lagrange, De revelatione l. 1, c. 14, a. 3. Older authors have little on this controversy; from the sixteenth century onward certain theologians treated this matter more than was due.