Faith

Aeneas faithfully saves his ancestors (his father), his gods (carried by his father), and his descendants (his son) from the ruin of TroyDefinition and Explanation

  1. Catechism of the Catholic Church, point 1814:
    • "Faith is the theological virtue by which we believe in God and believe all that He has said and revealed to us, and that Holy Church proposes for our belief, because He is truth itself."
  2. The King James Bible:
    • "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" (Heb. 11:1).
  3.  Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologiae, IIaIIae, questions 2,6,7:
    • "The act of believing is an act of the intellect assenting to the Divine truth at the command of the will moved by the grace of God."
    • Cause:
      • Faith is infused into the human soul by God in two aspects. First, God reveals the objects to which faith assents, which objects surpass human reason. Second, God is the cause of man's movement to assent to the truths of faith, a movement otherwise beyond the capabilities of human nature.
    • Effects:
      • Faith brings about two sorts of fear in man's soul: servile fear, i.e., the fear of being punished by God, and filial fear, i.e., the fear of separating oneself from God or making oneself equal to God.
      • Faith also begins the purification of the soul by turning it away from the subjection of love of transient, corporeal things and to God instead.

Examples from Western History and Literature