Why are we talking about faith today? Because faith plays a significant role in shaping both our individual and collective community and world views. Not only that, but one’s faith, expressed collectively, supports the development of group virtues and social capital – those core requirements of a sustainable society. As said by Bertrand de Jouvenel: “only transcendental ties of affection [can] hold the human race together in a world-wide society.”

Is faith a virtue or a passion?

According to Blaise Pascal, faith lives in the heart – the seat of the passions – rather than in the mind – the seat of our virtues: “It is the heart that feels God, not reason: that is what faith is“, he states.

If faith is indeed a passion, then we are led to believe that faith should “jostle the will in opposite ways” and render “the soul enslaved and miserable,” as said by René Descartes. But Descartes is in disagreement with Pascal, for he states: “our faith has a basis in our intellect.” And it is the virtue of faith to which Jean Bodin refers when he writes: “The golden mean that everyone is looking for is not secured by a numerical calculation, but in the sphere of morals means [and] rule of reason.“ 

The intellect referred to by Descartes and the reason mentioned by Bodin all indicate the mind, rather than the heart. Now, as the mind is the seat of our virtues and faith lives in the mind, faith must be a virtue.

Thomas Aquinas agrees with Descartes and Bodin that faith is related to our intellect and reason, rather than to our passions of the heart: “faith resides in the reason”, he writes in his Summa, as well as “faith is a perfection of the intellect” and “faith pertains to the intellect as commanded by the will.” If we take Aristotle’s definition of virtue, that “excellence is a habit of the soul”, then here, too, Aquinas defines faith as a virtue: “any habit that is always the principle of a good act, may be called a human virtue. Such a habit is living faith.” But perhaps the clearest, most concise statement on faith as a virtue from Aquinas is this:

“Faith is a virtue that perfects the intellect”.