Faith: Grace, Free Co-operation, Supreme Certitude, and Necessity

§ 36. Faith and Grace

I. It is not absolutely impossible for man, unaided by grace, to elicit some act of faith of a kind. Man is naturally able to perceive revealed truth once brought to his notice, together with God’s authority and the motives of credibility; his moral nature, too, prompts him to reverence and honour God. Some act of faith is thus naturally possible. But the act of Faith God actually intends and commands transcends our natural faculties, and is supernatural in two distinct ways: supernatural in its very substance or essence (secundum substantiam sive essentiam), as the beginning, root, and foundation of man’s salvation; and supernatural in its mode (secundum modum), by reason of the great difficulty the natural man finds in embracing the Faith and accepting its consequences. The first character comes from Elevating Grace, which raises nature to the supernatural order; the second from Medicinal Grace, which makes up for nature’s shortcomings. The Vatican Council teaches that Faith is a “supernatural virtue whereby we believe with the help of God’s grace,” repeating the words of the Seventh Canon of the Second Council of Orange: “no man can assent to the gospel preaching, in the manner requisite for salvation, without the light and inspiration of the Holy Ghost, who giveth to every man sweetness in assenting to and believing in the truth.” A complete explanation of these points belongs properly to the treatise on Grace; the following will suffice for our present purpose.

II. This definition teaches directly that Faith is supernatural both in its cause and in its object. But a supernatural cause must communicate to the act of Faith itself the worth that lets it attain a supernatural object — the act, therefore, must itself be supernatural, substantially different from any merely natural act, capable of reaching an object beyond the natural order altogether. Broadly speaking, the supernatural essence of the act of Faith consists in accepting revealed truths in a manner befitting our dignity as adopted sons of God, destined for the Beatific Vision, and befitting, too, the paternal condescension of a God who has deigned to speak to us as His own children, calling and raising us to the most intimate union with Himself. More particularly, it consists in the transformation of our sense of belief (pius credulitatis affectus) into filial piety toward God, and into a striving after its supernatural object commensurate with that object’s own excellence; and in the union and assimilation of our knowledge with the Divine knowledge, so that Faith becomes, as it were, a participation in God’s own Life and Knowledge — an anticipation and foretaste of the supernatural knowledge awaiting us in the Beatific Vision. The supernatural essence of Divine Faith thus contains two elements, one moral, one intellectual, intimately interwoven yet genuinely distinct.

III. Faith is Divine not merely because its certitude rests on God’s authority, but because God Himself is the efficient cause acting on the believer’s mind, producing in him subjective certainty. God is the author of Faith as no one else could be. Scripture teaches that Christian Faith requires an internal illumination beyond the external revelation itself (Matt. 16:17), and, besides the hearing of the external word, the hearing of an internal one, and instruction from an internal teacher (John 6:45) — the external revelation attributed to the visible Son, the internal to the invisible Father. It follows that Faith cannot be produced by purely external influences, nor can the human mind produce it through its own natural exertions alone; it must be infused into the soul by divine light, received directly from the hand of God.

IV. The mental acts preceding this infusion of the light of Faith carry merely the character of preparatory dispositions, or of co-operation enabling that light to exert its own power — yet even these preparatory acts are supernatural from their very outset, and must themselves be the result of the Holy Ghost’s illumination and inspiration. The illumination that gives the soul its immediate inclination and power to elicit a supernatural act of Faith is not, then, the only illumination in play — the practical judgment “that we can and ought to believe,” preceding the pius affectus itself, must itself result from supernatural illumination, or it could not produce a supernatural act of will. This illumination carries, too, the character of an internal word or call of God, at least insofar as it repeats and internally animates the command to believe already given through external revelation — though a natural knowledge of this same practical judgment must be presupposed before the supernatural illumination can even occur. The clearest way to grasp this is to regard the natural judgment as merely speculative until the Holy Ghost’s own action transforms it into an effective, practical judgment that actually determines the act of Faith.

V. The secondary, relatively supernatural character of Faith, though less important, is nonetheless more readily apparent. Faith is beset with difficulties arising partly from the intellectual and moral conditions of our nature, and partly from the obligations Faith itself imposes on the believer’s intellect and will; without the help of God’s grace, man could not surmount these difficulties, so that the act of Faith would be, in this further respect too, morally impossible. Not all men, however, find believing equally difficult — the necessity of God’s assisting grace is accordingly not absolute but relative, varying with the moral and intellectual dispositions of those to whom Revelation is proposed.

§ 37. Man’s Co-operation in the Act of Faith — Faith a Free Act

I. Although so many external causes bear on the act of Faith, and God is its principal cause, the act of Faith remains, nonetheless, a genuinely human and free act. According to the Vatican Council, it is, as we have seen, essentially an act of obedience, “an entire submission of the intellect and the will” — not, therefore, a simply passive or receptive act, nor a blind, instinctive one, nor an act forced upon us either by divine grace or by the sheer weight of demonstration. The Council of Trent describes Faith as a “free movement towards God,” implying a twofold operation: hearing His outward word, and receiving His inward inspiration; the Vatican Council further explains this Tridentine doctrine, speaking of “yielding free obedience to God,” directly countering the Rationalist claim that the assent of Christian Faith is the necessary result of human argument alone. The same doctrine may be gathered throughout Scripture, which always speaks of the act of Faith as a free, moral act — an act of obedience, of worship, and the like (cf. Rom. 4:20; Mark 10:22; John 20:27; Matt. 16:17; Luke 1:45; Matt. 9:29; Rom. 4:3–20ff.; Gal. 3:6).

II. The Council of Trent also indicates the positive character of this free act of will that determines the act of Faith: the will determines the act of Faith freely, because its own moral dispositions move it to obey God. Beyond this primary liberty of Faith, there is a secondary liberty as well, arising from the non-coercive character of the motives of credibility, which allows the will to withhold its consent, leaving room for doubt or even denial — every act of Faith must accordingly be determined by a genuinely free act of will. This non-coercive character of the motives of credibility may be traced to three causes: (a) the obscurity of the divine testimony itself (inevidentia attestantis); (b) the obscurity of the contents of Revelation; and (c) the tension between the obligations Faith imposes and the evil inclinations of our own corrupt nature.

III. In eliciting the act of Faith, man’s freedom is itself elevated to the supernatural order. This supernatural dignity and excellence leads to a supernatural, divine freedom of mind — the freedom of the children of God, freedom from error and doubt, the full and perfect possession of the highest truth within the very bosom of Eternal Truth. Its childlike simplicity is, in truth, the highest wisdom, leading to the highest intellectual attainments — whereas infidelity leads only to folly: “no more children tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the wickedness of men, by cunning craftiness” (Eph. 4:14; cf. Luke 10:21).

§ 38. The Supreme Certitude of Faith

I. Faith requires the fullest assent, excluding every doubt and every fear of deception, including the fullest conviction that what is believed cannot be otherwise than true — no lesser faith answers to the excellence and force of God’s own infallible truth. Faith is thus essentially different from mere opinion lacking certitude, and equally from so-called practical or moral certitude. In the firmness of its assent, the certitude of Faith is essentially higher and more perfect than the certitude of any science, since the motive of Faith — God’s own authority — is more trustworthy than the light of reason by which we attain scientific certitude; we are bound, accordingly, to reject unconditionally any doubt or difficulty arising merely from the exercise of reason. As theologians put it, the certainty of Faith is supreme, surmounting every other doubt and rising above every other certainty (certitudo super omnia). The Vatican Council, as already noted, declares Faith to be a complete submission of the mind, the perfect subjugation of the created intellect to Uncreated Truth, and enjoins the unconditional rejection of any scientific inquiry at variance with the Faith.

II. A threefold distinction clarifies this doctrine. (1) The supreme certitude of Faith is appreciative in its nature — that is, it includes and results from a supreme appreciation of its own motive, without necessarily being felt more vividly than any other certitude; as a rule, it is in fact felt less vividly than ordinary human certitude resting on unimpeachable evidence. (2) The supreme firmness of Faith must likewise be distinguished from the mere unshakeability that belongs to evident human knowledge as such. (3) That Faith’s certitude is supreme does not imply that every other certitude is untrustworthy, or that we must be ready to resist evident human certitude that seems to conflict with the Faith — a genuine conflict between Faith and reason is, in fact, impossible.

III. The high degree of certitude proper to the act of Faith is attained and completed through the supernatural light of Faith pervading every element of the act. This light, being, as it were, a ray of the Divine Light itself, participates in the divine infallibility, and cannot but illumine the truth — the certitude it produces is thus Divine in every respect, so absolutely infallible that a real act of Faith can never have falsehood for its subject-matter. The Vatican Council defines this directly, repeating the Fifth Lateran Council’s own definition: “every assertion contrary to enlightened faith [illuminatae fidei, that is, faith produced by divine illumination] we define to be altogether false.” The phrase “enlightened faith” signifies Faith as actually produced in the believer, distinct both from the external, objective proposition of revealed truth and from any merely human act of faith. The Council of Trent states similarly that Faith affords a certitude to which falsehood cannot possibly attach (cui non potest subesse falsum). The light of Faith itself cannot be misapplied to belief in error — though a man may certainly mistake a merely natural act of faith in some supposed revelation for a genuinely supernatural act elicited through the light of Faith, so that some external criterion is needed to distinguish the two. This criterion is supplied by the Faith of the Church, which cannot err: Catholic Faith carries with it the very consciousness that it is Divine Faith, produced by divine light, whereas the self-made faith of Protestants cannot assert itself as Divine without collapsing into mere fanaticism.

IV. The supreme certitude of Faith implies the will to remain true to it without doubt or denial, and the firm conviction that it can never rightly be abandoned as false. Every act of Faith is accordingly irreformable, possessing a certitude that cannot be shaken — though Faith can, of course, be destroyed through an abuse of our own free will; and we remain bound, too, to correct any faith erroneously supposed to be divine, but mistakenly applied to propositions God never actually revealed. The Vatican Council, having described how God co-operates both in the acceptance of Faith and in perseverance in it, concludes: “wherefore the condition of those who have by the heavenly gift of faith cleaved to Catholic truth is by no means on a footing with the condition of those who, led by human opinions, follow a false religion; for those who have received the faith under the teaching of the Church can never have any just cause for changing or calling the faith in doubt” (sess. iii, c. 3). And in Canon 6, directed against the errors of Hermes, the Council enacts: “if any one shall say that the condition of the faithful is on a footing with that of those who have not yet reached the one true faith… let him be anathema.” Everyone who embraces the Catholic Faith binds himself most strictly to hold it forever: “I promise most constantly to retain and confess the same entire and inviolate, by God’s help, to the last breath of my life” (Creed of Pius IV). No excuse can be offered for any breach of this fidelity, save invincible ignorance alone; every doubt against the Faith must be unhesitatingly rejected as sinful.

§ 39. Necessity of Faith

I. The Necessity of Faith is twofold: a Necessity of Means, and a Necessity of Precept — the latter always includes the former, though not conversely. The Faith that is a necessary means of justification and salvation is Theological Faith, perfect in its kind. In infants, the mere Habit of Faith suffices; in those who have reached the use of reason, some actual act of Faith is required, bearing in some way on the economy of salvation as revealed by God. Faith in the broad sense — mere faith founded on the testimony creatures give of God’s existence and providence — is not enough (cf. prop. 23, condemned by Innocent XI, March 2, 1679), nor does merely Inchoate Faith suffice — a faith in germ only, extending no further than a bare willingness and readiness to believe. The act of Faith must be complete, and grounded in a genuine supernatural Divine Revelation; Faith alone can give the knowledge of the supernatural economy of salvation that lets man order his actions in harmony with his supernatural end. This is the very reasoning St. Paul uses to show that Abel and Enoch, no less than Abraham, obtained justification and salvation through Faith, though Scripture never says of them, as it says of Abraham, that their Faith rested on some positive Divine Revelation: “without faith it is impossible to please God; for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and is a rewarder to them that seek him” (Heb. 11:6).

1. These two points of Faith are indispensable, since they are the two poles on which the whole economy of salvation turns — there is probably an allusion here to God’s own words to Abraham: “I am thy protector, and thy reward exceeding great” (Gen. 15:1). The words “that he is” thus refer not to God’s existence in the abstract, but to His existence as our God, leading us on to salvation under His own paternal Providence — belief in His existence, in this sense, being the fundamental condition of all our dealing with Him, and standing as far above our natural knowledge as belief in God the Rewarder itself. If, as St. Peter Chrysologus states, the first article of the Apostles’ Creed already expresses belief in God as our Father, then “that he is” corresponds to this first article, just as “that he is a rewarder to them that seek him” corresponds to the last article, “life everlasting.” Theologians rightly conclude from Heb. 11:6 that, at least in pre-Christian times, only these two points needed to be expressly believed — sufficient to let man tend, through hope and charity, toward God as the Source of salvation.
2. Whether, after Christ’s coming, Faith in the Christian economy specifically became indispensable remains an open question among theologians. Many scriptural texts seem to demand Faith in Christ, in His death and Resurrection, as a necessary condition of salvation; yet it is equally hard to see how eternal salvation could have become simply impossible for those unable to reach explicit knowledge of Christian Revelation. The best solution seems that offered by Suárez (De Fide, disp. xii, sect. iv): the texts demanding Faith in Christ and in the Blessed Trinity should not be interpreted more rigorously than those concerning the necessity of Baptism, especially since Faith in Christ, Faith in the Trinity, and the necessity of Baptism are closely bound together. Faith in these mysteries, like Baptism itself, is the ordinary, normal means of salvation; but under extraordinary circumstances, where actual reception of Baptism is impossible, a mere implicit desire (votum) suffices — and so, too, must an implicit desire to believe in Christ and the Trinity be judged sufficient. By “implicit desire” we mean the desire to receive, believe, and do whatever is needful for salvation, even without explicit knowledge of exactly what must be received, believed, and done. This implicit wish and willingness to believe in Christ must, however, be accompanied by, and connected with, an explicit Faith in Divine Providence as caring for our salvation — a Faith that itself implies Faith and Hope in the Christian economy of salvation more broadly (cf. St. Thomas, II-II, q. 2, a. 7).

II. The Necessity of Precept — the obligation arising from the command to believe — extends conditionally to the whole of Revelation: once we know that some truth has been revealed, we are bound to believe it explicitly. The number of revealed truths any individual is bound to know and believe explicitly varies with his particular circumstances and abilities, and no fixed positive law governs the matter in detail; every Christian, however, is bound to know explicitly whatever revealed truths are necessary for leading a Christian life and fulfilling the duties of his own state. It is the general opinion of theologians that there is a grave obligation to know the content of the Apostles’ Creed, the Decalogue, the Lord’s Prayer, and whatever is required for the worthy reception of the Sacraments and proper participation in public worship (cf. St. Thomas, II-II, q. 2, aa. 3–8, with commentaries).