Theological virtues

Short description: Christian ethics

Part of a series on
Catholic philosophy

Aquinas, Scotus, and Ockham

Ethics

* Cardinal virtues
* Just price
* Just war
* Probabilism
* Natural law
* Personalism
* Social teaching
* Virtue ethics

Schools

* Augustinianism
* Cartesianism
* Molinism
* Occamism
* Salamanca
* Scholasticism
* Neo-scholasticism
* Scotism
* Thomism

Philosophers

Ancient

* Ambrose
* Athanasius the Great
* Augustine of Hippo
* Clement of Alexandria
* Cyprian of Carthage
* Cyril of Alexandria
* Gregory of Nyssa
* Irenaeus of Lyons
* Jerome
* John Chrysostom
* John of Damascus
* Justin Martyr
* Origen
* Paul the Apostle
* Tertullian

Postclassical

* Pseudo-Dionysius
* Boethius
* Isidore of Seville
* Scotus Eriugena
* Bede
* Anselm of Canterbury
* Hildegard of Bingen
* Peter Abelard
* Symeon the New Theologian
* Bernard of Clairvaux
* Hugh of Saint Victor
* Thomas Aquinas
* Benedict of Nursia
* Pope Gregory I
* Peter Lombard
* Bonaventure
* Albertus Magnus
* Duns Scotus
* Roger Bacon
* Giles of Rome
* James of Viterbo
* Giambattista Vico
* Gregory of Rimini
* William of Ockham
* Catherine of Siena
* Paul of Venice

Modern

* Baltasar Gracián
* Erasmus of Rotterdam
* Thomas Cajetan
* Nicholas of Cusa
* Luis de Molina
* Teresa of Ávila
* Thomas More
* Francis de Sales
* Francisco de Vitoria
* Domingo de Soto
* Martín de Azpilcueta
* Tomás de Mercado
* Antoine Arnauld
* René Descartes
* Robert Bellarmine
* Ignacy Krasicki
* Hugo Kołłątaj
* François Fénelon
* Alphonsus Liguori
* Nicolas Malebranche
* Blaise Pascal
* Francisco Suárez
* Giovanni Botero

Contemporary

* Pope Benedict XVI
* Pope John Paul II
* Mortimer J. Adler
* G. E. M. Anscombe
* Robert Barron
* Hans Urs von Balthasar
* G. K. Chesterton
* Yves Congar
* Edward Feser
* Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange
* Étienne Gilson
* René Girard
* Romano Guardini
* Dietrich von Hildebrand
* Faustina Kowalska
* Peter Kreeft
* Felicité de Lamennais
* Bernard Lonergan
* Marshall McLuhan
* Alasdair MacIntyre
* Gabriel Marcel
* Jacques Maritain
* Désiré Mercier
* Thomas Merton
* Oswald von Nell-Breuning
* John Henry Newman
* Erich Przywara
* Karl Rahner
* Antonio Rosmini
* Edith Stein
* Eleonore Stump
* Charles Taylor

* v
* t
* e

Theological virtues are virtues associated in Christian theology and philosophy with salvation resulting from the grace of God.[1] Virtues are traits or qualities which dispose one to conduct oneself in a morally good manner. Traditionally the theological virtues have been named Faith, Hope, and Charity (Love).

The medieval Catholic philosopher Thomas Aquinas explained that these virtues are called theological virtues "first, because their object is God, inasmuch as they direct us aright to God: secondly, because they are infused in us by God alone: thirdly, because these virtues are not made known to us, save by Divine revelation, contained in Holy Writ".[2]

## Contents

* 1 Background
* 1.1 1 Corinthians 13
* 1.2 Aquinas
* 2 Teaching by denomination
* 2.1 Catholic Church
* 2.2 Moravian Church
* 2.3 Anglican Communion
* 3 Moral theology
* 4 Comparison of cardinal and theological virtues
* 5 See also
* 6 References
* 7 Further reading
* 8 External links

## Background

### 1 Corinthians 13

The first mention in Christian literature of the three theological virtues is in St. Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians 1:3, "...calling to mind your work of faith and labor of love and endurance in hope..."[3] In 1 Thessalonians 5:8, he refers to this triad of virtues again, "But since we are of the day, let us be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love and the helmet that is hope for salvation."[4]

In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul places the greater emphasis on Charity (Love). "So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love." First, because it informs the other two: "It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things." According to Augustine of Hippo, from a temporal perspective, love lasts, while "Hope isn't hope if its object is seen," and faith gives way to possession.[5] This view is shared by Gregory of Nyssa.[5]

### Aquinas

Aquinas found an interconnection of practical wisdom (prudentia) and moral virtue (e.g. courage without prudence risks becoming mere foolhardiness). This is frequently termed "the Unity of the Virtues."[6]

Aquinas stated that theological virtues are so called "because they have God for their object, both in so far as by them we are properly directed to Him, and because they are infused into our souls by God alone, as also, finally, because we come to know of them only by Divine revelation in the Sacred Scriptures".[2]

In his treatment of the virtues, Aquinas viewed the theological virtues as being the product of habitual grace. According to Aquinas, this grace, through the theological virtues, allows humanity to become agents in meritorious action that is beyond their own natural ability. In this way it is supernatural.[1]

Aquinas says "Faith has the character of a virtue, not because of the things it believes, for faith is of things that appear not, but because it adheres to the testimony of one in whom truth is infallibly found".[7][8]

Aquinas further connected the theological virtues with the cardinal virtues. He views the supernatural inclinations of the theological virtues, caused by habitual grace, to find their fulfillment in being acted upon in the cardinal virtues.[clarification needed][1]

## Teaching by denomination

### Catholic Church

The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that faith, hope, and love (charity) "dispose Christians to live in a relationship with the Holy Trinity. They have God for their origin, their motive, and their object — God known by faith, hoped in, and loved for His own sake."[9]

### Moravian Church

Among essential beliefs, the Moravian Church teaches that "God creates; God redeems; God blesses. And we respond in faith, in love, and in hope." As such, Moravian Christians teach to judge themselves "by how deep our faith is, how expansive our love is, and how life affirming our hope is."[10]

### Anglican Communion

Churches of the Anglican Communion also follow Augustine and Aquinas. "Faith is a matter of knowledge of God which perfects the intellect... Hope is a matter of the perfection of the will... Love is a matter of perfection itself as love is the perfection of all powers."[11] Richard Hooker said regarding faith, that its "principal object is that eternal verity which hath discovered the treasures of hidden wisdom in Christ"; of hope that its "highest object is that everlasting goodness which in Christ doth quicken the dead"; of charity, that its "final object is that incomprehensible beauty which shineth in the countenance of Christ the Son of the Living God".[12]

## Moral theology

The three Virtues in Bom Jesus, Braga

A person receives the theological virtues by their being "infused"—through Divine grace—into the person.[13] The theological virtues are so named because their object is the divine being (theos).

* Faith is the infused virtue, by which the intellect, by a movement of the will, assents to the supernatural truths of Revelation, not on the motive of intrinsic evidence, but on the sole ground of the infallible authority of God revealing.[14] According to Hugh Pope "[W]hat God says is supremely credible, though not necessarily supremely intelligible for us."[8] The First Vatican Council (III, iii;) stated that "faith is a supernatural virtue by which we with the inspiration and assistance of God's grace, believe those things to be true which He has revealed... although the assent of faith is in no sense blind, yet no one can assent to the Gospel teaching in the way necessary for salvation without the illumination of the Holy Spirit..."[8] It is a gratuitous gift of God.
* Hope is defined as a Divinely infused virtue, which acts upon the will, by which one trusts, with confidence grounded on the Divine assistance, to attain life everlasting.[14] Its opposite is the sin of despair.[2]
* Charity is a Divinely infused virtue, inclining the human will to cherish God for his own sake above all things, and man for the sake of God. To love God is to wish Him all honour and glory and every good, and to endeavour, as far as one can, to obtain it for Him. John 14:23 notes a unique feature of reciprocity that makes charity a veritable friendship of man with God. "Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him."[15] Lack of love may give place to hatred, wrath, or indifference.

## Comparison of cardinal and theological virtues

The moral virtues are acquired by practice and habit. Catholic moral theology holds that the theological virtues differ from the cardinal virtues in that they cannot be obtained by human effort, but are infused by God into a person. The Episcopal Church shares this view. "As distinct from the cardinal virtues which we can develop, the theological virtues are the perfection of human powers given by the grace of God."[11] Like the cardinal virtues, an individual who exercises these virtues strengthens and increases them, i.e., they are more disposed to practice them.[16]

Following Augustine, Aquinas also recognized a separate but related type of moral virtue which is also infused by God. The distinction lies both in their source and end. The moral virtue of temperance recognizes food as a good that sustains life, but guards against the sin of gluttony. The infused virtue of temperance disposes the individual to practice fasting and abstinence. The infused moral virtues are connected to the theological virtue of Charity.[16][14]

Pope Benedict XVI wrote three encyclicals about the theological virtues: Deus caritas est (about love), Spe salvi (about hope), and Lumen fidei (about faith: this encyclical was written both by Pope Benedict XVI and by Pope Francis).[17]

## See also

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Rziha, John Michael (2009). Perfecting Human Actions: St. Thomas Aquinas on Human Participation in Eternal Law. CUA Press. pp. 143–149. ISBN 9780813216720. https://books.google.com/books?id=-CBFQw8hz8sC. Retrieved 6 April 2017.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Thomas, Aquinas. "First part of the second part; Question 62; Article one;". Summa Theologica. https://www.documentacatholicaomnia.eu/03d/1225-1274,_Thomas_Aquinas,_Summa_Theologiae_[1],_EN.pdf#page3243.
3. ↑ 1 Thessalonians 1:3 and the associated note.
4. ↑ 1 Thessalonians 5:8
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Kovacs, Judith L. (25 October 2005). 1 Corinthians. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. p. 227. ISBN 978-0-8028-2577-3.
6. ↑ Annas, Julia (1993). The Morality of Happiness. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 73–84.
7. ↑ Thomas Aquinas (1259). De Veritate. xiv.8.
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Pope, Hugh (1909). "Faith". The Catholic Encyclopedia. 5. New York: Robert Appleton Company. https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05752c.htm.
9. ↑ "Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 1840" (in en). https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P68.HTM.
10. ↑ "In Essentials, Unity: Understanding the essential things" (in English). Moravian Church. 24 August 2018. https://www.moravian.org/2018/08/in-essentials-unity-understanding-the-essential-things/.
11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 "Theological Virtues". https://www.episcopalchurch.org/glossary/theological-virtues/.
12. ↑ Hooker, Richard (1597). Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity. I.xi. as quoted in Kirk, Kenneth E. (1920). Some Principles of Moral Theology. London: Longmans, Green and Co. Ltd.. p. 42, note 6. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
13. ↑ Waldron, M.A. (1912). "Virtue". in Herbermann, Charles. Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15472a.htm.
14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Waldron, M.A. (1912). "Virtue". in Herbermann, Charles. Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15472a.htm.
15. ↑ Sollier, Joseph (1910). "Love (Theological Virtue)". The Catholic Encyclopedia. 9. New York: Robert Appleton Company. https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09397a.htm.
16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Drefcinski, Shane. "A Very Short Primer on St. Thomas Aquinas' Account of the Various Virtues". http://people.uwplatt.edu/~drefcins/233AquinasVirtues.html.
17. ↑ Speciale, Alessandro (4 July 2013). "The light of faith: origin, history and horizon of the christianism". La Stampa (Turin). http://vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en/the-vatican/detail/articolo/enciclica-papa-el-papa-pope-lumen-fidei-26222/.

## Further reading

* Hoeberichts, Jan (2003). Paradise Restored: The Social Ethics of Francis of Assisi, A Commentary on Francis's "Salutation of the Virtues". Franciscan Press. ISBN 978-0-8199-1008-0.
* Slater, Thomas (1925). "Book 5: On the Theological Virtues". A manual of moral theology for English-speaking countries. Burns Oates & Washbourne Ltd..

## External links

| Wikimedia Commons has media related to First Epistle to the Corinthians.

|

* v
* t
* e

Catholic philosophy

Ethics|

* Cardinal virtues
* Divine command
* Just price
* Just war
* Probabilism
* Natural law
* Personalism
* Seven virtues
* Social teaching
* Theological virtues
* Virtue ethics

Schools|

| Medieval|

* Augustinianism
* Scholasticism
* Thomism
* Scotism
* Occamism

|

Modern|

* Salamanca
* Christian humanism
* Cartesianism
* Molinism
* Neo-scholasticism
* Analytical Thomism

Universals|

* Augustinian realism
* Nominalism
* Conceptualism
* Moderate realism
* Scotistic realism

Other|

* Theological intellectualism
* Theological voluntarism
* Foundationalism

Philosophers|

* Clement
* Augustine
* Boethius
* Dionysius
* Isidore
* Eriugena
* Alcuin
* Anselm
* Abelard
* Lombard
* Albertus
* Bonaventure
* Aquinas
* Llull
* Scotus
* Occam
* Ficino
* Pico
* Erasmus
* Cusa
* Luis
* More
* Suárez
* Descartes
* Pierre
* Montaigne
* Pascal
* Krasicki
* Kołłątaj
* Staszic
* Newman
* Scheler
* Chesterton
* Maritain
* Stein
* Mortimer
* Rahner
* Anscombe
* MacIntyre
* Wojtyla
* Ratzinger

Concepts|

* Actus purus
* Actus Essendi
* Actus primus
* Quinque viae
* Theodicy
* Augustinian
* Irenaean
* Formal distinction
* Univocity
* Head of a pin
* Occam's razor
* Augustinian values
* Principle of double effect
* Seven deadly sins
* Quiddity
* Cardinal virtues
* Stratification of emotional life
* Disputation
* Evil demon
* Aevum
* Haecceity
* Cartesian dualism
* Divine illumination
* Peripatetic axiom
* Memento mori
* Ressentiment
* Rota Fortunae
* Double truth
* Ontological argument
* Utopia
* Trademark argument
* Pascal's wager
* Dehellenization
* Differentia
* Homo unius libri
* Cogito, ergo sum
* Infused righteousness

Related|

* Catholic theology
* Platonism
* Aristotelianism
* Neoplatonism
* Islamic philosophy
* Doctor of the Church
* Renaissance
* Rationalism
* Empiricism
* Phenomenology

*   *

* v
* t
* e

Seven virtues in Christian ethics

Four
cardinal virtues|

* Prudence (Prudentia)
* Justice (Iustitia)
* Fortitude (Fortitudo)
* Temperance (Temperantia)

* Sources: Plato
* Republic, Book IV
* Cicero
* Ambrose
* Augustine of Hippo
* Thomas Aquinas

Faith, Hope and Love, as portrayed by Mary Lizzie Macomber (1861–1916)

Three
theological virtues|

* Faith (Fides)
* Hope (Spes)
* Love (Caritas)

* Sources: Paul the Apostle
* 1 Corinthians 13

Seven deadly sins|

* Lust (Luxuria)
* Gluttony (Gula)
* Greed (Avaritia)
* Sloth (Acedia)
* Wrath (Ira)
* Envy (Invidia)
* Pride (Superbia)

* Source: Prudentius, Psychomachia

* People: Evagrius Ponticus
* John Cassian
* Pope Gregory I
* Dante Alighieri
* Peter Binsfeld

Related concepts|

* Ten Commandments
* Great Commandment
* Eschatology
* Sin
* Original sin
* Old Covenant
* Hamartiology

* Christian philosophy

* v
* t
* e

Christianity

* Index
* Outline
* Glossary
* Lists of Christians
* By country

Bible|

* Books
* Canon
* Old Testament
* New Testament

Foundations|

* Church
* Creed
* Gospel
* New Covenant
* Christian tradition

History
Timeline|

| Early Christianity|

* Jesus
* Nativity
* Baptism
* Ministry
* Sermon on the Mount
* Crucifixion
* Resurrection
* Great Commission
* Apostles
* Church fathers
* Apostolic fathers

|

Great Church|

* Ante-Nicene period
* Late antiquity
* Constantine
* First seven ecumenical councils
* Nicaea I
* Chalcedon
* State church of the Roman Empire
* Biblical canon

Middle Ages|

* Monasticism
* Papal States
* East–West Schism
* Investiture Controversy
* Crusades
* Age of Discovery

Modern era|

* Protestant Reformation
* Catholic Reformation
* Thirty Years' War
* Enlightenment
* French Revolution
* Persecution:
* Communism
* Islam

Denominations
(List)|

| Western|

* Adventist
* Anabaptist
* Anglican
* Baptist
* Calvinist
* Catholic
* Charismatic
* Evangelical
* Holiness
* Lutheran
* Methodist
* Pentecostal
* Protestant

|

Eastern|

* Eastern Orthodox
* Oriental Orthodox (Miaphysite)
* Church of the East (Nestorian)
* Eastern Catholic
* Eastern Protestant

Nontrinitarian|

* Jehovah's Witnesses
* Latter Day Saint movement

Theology|

* God
* Trinity
* Father
* Son
* Holy Spirit
* Christology
* Nicene Creed
* Tradition
* Original sin
* Salvation
* Worship
* Mariology
* Theotokos
* Saints
* Ecclesiology
* Four marks
* Body of Christ
* One true church
* People of God
* Canon law
* Sacraments
* Baptism
* Lord's Supper
* Marriage
* Confirmation
* Penance
* Anointing of the Sick
* Holy orders
* Mission

Philosophy|

* Natural law
* Ethics
* Science
* Evolution
* Politics

Other
Features|

| Culture|

* Liturgy
* Art
* Jesus
* Marian
* Literature
* Music
* Church buildings
* Cathedrals
* Role in civilization
* See also:
* Other religions
* Criticism
* Persecution

|

Movements|

* Asceticism
* Charismatic
* Christian democracy
* Environmentalism
* Existentialism
* Fundamentalism
* Liberation
* Left/Right
* Pacifism
* Prosperity

Cooperation|

* Christendom
* Ecumenism
* Charta Oecumenica
* World Council of Churches
* World Evangelical Alliance
* Nondenominationalism

*   * Book
* Category

0.00

(0 votes)

Original source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theological virtues. Read more

|

Retrieved from "https://handwiki.org/wiki/index.php?title=Philosophy:Theological_virtues&oldid=1015703"
*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template