Theological virtues
| Latin | virtutes theologicae |
|---|---|
| Locus in Aquinas | Summa theologiae I–II, q. 62 |
| Branch | Moral theology |
| Controlling authority | Catechism 1812–1844; 1 Corinthians 13:13; Trent Session VI; Summa theologiae I–II, q. 62 |
| Doctrinal standing | Faith, hope, and charity as infused theological virtues are Catholic doctrine; their exact order of generation and charity as form is received theology with Thomistic precision |
| School | Thomism |
Theological virtues are faith, hope, and charity: infused habits whose object is God, given with grace so that the human person may be ordered to the supernatural end.[1]
Why they are called theological
Summa theologiae I–II, question 62, article 1, gives three reasons for the name. Their object is God, they are infused by God alone, and they are known by revelation. They exist because man has a happiness surpassing nature, a participation of the divine nature. Natural principles that order him to a connatural end do not suffice. The 1913 article on virtue repeats the same three marks. Catechism 1812–1813 teaches that the theological virtues are infused by God into the souls of the faithful to make them capable of acting as his children and of meriting eternal life.[2][3]
Article 2 distinguishes them from intellectual and moral virtues by the formal object. Intellectual and moral virtues concern what is comprehensible to human reason. The theological virtues concern God as he surpasses reason. Wisdom as an intellectual virtue considers divine things so far as reason can search them. Theological virtue considers them so far as they exceed that search. Augustine's reduction of the cardinal virtues to the order of love does not make them identical with charity, though they depend on charity.[1]
Faith, hope, and charity as a complete set
Article 3 takes 1 Corinthians 13:13 as the list. The intellect receives supernatural principles, the articles of faith. The will is directed to the end as attainable, which is hope, and as a spiritual union transforming the will into that end, which is charity. Two theological virtues in the appetite are therefore needed, because movement to the end and conformity with the end by love are distinct. Faith and hope imply imperfection as of things unseen and not yet possessed, yet in matters above nature they surpass every connatural virtue.[1]
Catechism 1814–1829 unfolds the three: faith as belief in God and all he has said and revealed; hope as the desire of the kingdom and trust in Christ's promises; charity as the love of God above all things and of neighbor for God. Trent Session VI teaches their infusion in justification and that faith without hope and charity is not living faith. The school's psychology and the Church's doctrine meet here without remainder as to the three names.[4]
Order of generation and order of perfection
Article 4 distinguishes two orders. In generation, as to acts, faith precedes hope, and hope charity, because the appetite does not tend to what is not apprehended, and a man loves the one from whom he hopes a good. The habits, however, are infused together. In perfection, charity precedes, because it quickens faith and hope and is the form of the virtues, as the Secunda secundae will say of charity. A man can hope before having charity, through merits not yet possessed; the hope that follows upon works already done is the hope quickened by charity, of which Augustine speaks.[1]
This double order is theology in the service of the Apostle's list. It prevents two errors: one that treats charity as a feeling that need not believe, and one that treats faith as complete without love. Mortal sin destroys charity and living hope; faith can remain as unformed. Restoration of charity restores the life of the others. The Catechism's teaching that charity is the form of the virtues is the same doctrine in catechetical form.[5]
Infused principles, not acquired crafts
The theological virtues are not acquired by practice as a craft is acquired, though they grow by acts, prayer, and the sacraments. They can be lost, charity by any mortal sin, faith by sins against faith. They remain distinct from the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which in the Thomistic scheme dispose the person to the Spirit's motion beyond the ordinary mode of the virtues. The gifts belong to the life of grace as doctrine; the exact overlay is school theology.[5][6]
Aeterni Patris commended this treatise because it keeps the supernatural from being a mood and nature from pretending to be glory. Fides et Ratio later required both the obedience of faith and the work of reason. The theological virtues are the interior principles of that double life. The school's question 62 is the anatomy of those names, not a fourth theological virtue invented by commentators.
References
- Back to citation occurrence 1.0 Back to citation occurrence 1.1 Back to citation occurrence 1.2 Back to citation occurrence 1.3 Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae I–II, question 62 — Primary account of faith, hope, and charity as theological virtues infused for the supernatural end, distinct from intellectual and moral virtues.
- Back to citation Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1803–1845 — Authoritative synthesis of human and theological virtues, their acquisition or infusion, the cardinal structure, and charity as the form of the virtues.
- Back to citation Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), Virtue — Public-domain treatment of acquired and infused virtue and of the theological virtues as having God for object, being divinely infused, and known by revelation.
- Back to citation Council of Trent, Session VI, Decree on Justification — Tridentine teaching on justification by grace, the infusion of faith, hope, and charity, and the necessity of grace for meritorious acts toward the supernatural end.
- Back to citation occurrence 5.0 Back to citation occurrence 5.1 Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1996–2005 — Authoritative teaching on sanctifying grace as participation in divine life, actual grace, the elevation of human powers, and the gratuity of God's gift.
- Back to citation Leo XIII, Aeterni Patris — Encyclical restoring Christian philosophy in the school of Thomas Aquinas while distinguishing that commendation from a definition of every Thomistic thesis.