The Moral Virtues: Faith

As we discussed in our primer on the Moral Virtues, what distinguishes the Moral (Theological) Virtues from the Cardinal Virtues is that they are not cultivated for their own sake. The cardinal virtues were the end unto themselves, but the moral virtues point towards a greater good, a greater end, something worth the sacrifice.

Definition of Faith

Faith is the theological virtue by which we submit to God because He is truth itself.

• Similar Virtue: Humility

• Associated Vices: Disbelief, Pride

Faith is the foundation of the theological virtues, and one of the core tenets of the human experience. Faith is submitting to God, which in turn means not relying on ourselves. Proverbs 9 says:

¹⁰ The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,
and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

But what does it mean to fear the Lord and how is fear the beginning of wisdom? Augustine helps us unpack this thought a bit in his writings on John 1:

No one can reach this virtue of humility without the virtue of fear of the Lord; one cannot exist without the other. These, my children, are the effects of the fear of the Lord: “Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Ps 111:10); presence of God is the great means to avoid sin; anyone who fears the Lord will be glad in the Day of Judgment…

The wise man fears the Lord in all his actions, because he knows that it is impossible to escape from his presence. The psalmist says to God: “Where can I go from your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?” (Ps 139:7); and in another place he adds that “neither from the east nor from the west” is there a hiding place for him who flees from the Lord (cf. Ps 75:7).

He who fears the Lord will receive his doctrine; and he who is vigilant in the observance of his commandments will find an everlasting blessing.

Fearing the Lord does not just mean that we are afraid of Him, but rather something deeper. We are acknowledging that God is God, and we are not. There is an arc of this throughout the Great Books, the move from theism to atheism and back, which provides a prophetic roadmap for our current culture.

Faith by Piero del Pollaiuolo

The Early Authors

Homer’s Iliad & Odyssey are filled with the stories of the gods. In many ways, the gods are as much the main characters of the Iliad as Achilles & Hector. At no time in these works do we see the authors questioning the gods, in fact, the characters are frequently punished for not properly respecting the gods through sacrifices.

Around the time of the Golden Age of Greece, the cracks in the narratives begin to form, in both the literature and the histories. In Plato’s dialogue Euthyphro, Socrates presses his acquaintance to define piety, to which Euthyphro eventually derives that piety is what is pleasing to the gods. Socrates then explains how the gods frequently fight and disagree (such as in Homer’s epics), so how can one be pious if the gods actively disagree on what is pleasing to them?

This narrative has particular significance because in his life, Socrates was tried and found guilty of corrupting the youth and impiety against the Athenian gods. The point that Plato is making here is that the gods may not be the final authority on piety. As Socrates will point out, is something pious because of the gods, or do the gods require it because it is pious?

These ideas will continue to vacillate as authors feel a need to appeal to the gods for social reasons, while also writing about topics such as the ultimate good (Aristotle), the logos (Heraclitus & Philo), and laws to which even the gods are subject (Antigone).

The Christian Response

By the time of Christ, the Roman culture still observed religious ceremonies, but were far more open with questioning the gods. Many playwrights and philosophers openly declared a modern idea of atheism, but most of the popular philosophies believed in some semblance of a divine purpose, if not the full pantheon of gods. For someone like Marcus Aurelius (Meditations), this idea was frequently expressed as the logos, the rational principle that permeates the universe.

The logos had developed over the previous centuries:

• Heraclitus’ (6th Century B.C.) described “the cosmic process analogous to the reasoning power in humans”

• Zeno of Citium (4th–3rd Century B.C.) added “an active rational and spiritual principle that permeated all reality.”

• Philo Judaeus (1st Century A.D.) combined these ideas with the theological influence of “intermediary between God and the cosmos, being both the agent of creation and the agent through which the human mind can apprehend and comprehend God.”

With this background, the Gospel of John has much more depth and consequence:

John 1 ¹ In the beginning was the Word [Logos], and the [Logos] was with God, and the [Logos] was God. ² He was with God in the beginning. ³ Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. ⁴ In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

Here we see the Apostle John directly tying Christ to the logos, the mediator between God and man, the source of reasoning in man, and the rational principle permeating all reality. The amazing thread tying all of these ideas together is that John is writing his gospel in the city of Ephesus, the hometown of Heraclitus, who began the discussion of the logos six centuries prior. From Ephesus, the city that began the great philosophical conversation, comes the introduction of the theological (moral) virtues into western philosophy.

The final piece to this puzzle will be the early apologists, especially Justin Martyr. Justin’s Apology, written directly to the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, attempted to explain the misunderstandings that led to the persecution of early Christians. Justin addressed numerous issues, but primarily the charge of atheism.

Justin explained that while the Christians did not believe in the Roman gods, the claim of atheism was inappropriate. Christians did believe in a god, The God, the ultimate good (Aristotle), the very logos that the Greeks had written about and in which Marcus Aurelius claimed to believe. In this sense, Justin is explaining why faith in God is not some arbitrary ritual, but rather a tangible faith in a tangible God; a God fully reasoned, the source of reasoning itself.

Associated Vices

The two vices most closely associated with Faith are Disbelief and Pride.

Disbelief is the rejection of faith, in that the person refuses to believe in something, despite evidence supporting that belief. For instance, all scientific evidence overwhelmingly points towards a singularity, a point of origin for both space and time, also known as the Big Bang. However, this singularity flies in the face of atheistic philosophy that rejects creation, therefore scientific theories such as the multiverse attempt to explain why the universe appears to be created, but in fact is not. They do this be presenting theories that have zero scientific evidence, as admitted by the scientists themselves, in order to dismiss the overwhelming evidence to the contrary. This is a perfect example of disbelief, the willful rejection of scientific evidence because it does not match one’s philosophy.

Pride is the elevation of the self in the place of God, the greatest of sins. Pride is a common topic throughout the Great Books, from the Homer’s Agamemnon to Dostoyevsky’s Ivan Karamazov. Pride is considered the root of all sin, which is appropriate that it is the opposite of faith, in that the individual has no use for God, since they are their own god. From pride, each of the other vices (greed, envy, sloth, wrath, etc.) flow.

The Final Piece

As described above, the evolution of the faith in the Great Books largely matches our current cultural arc. Like Homer, the medieval cultures simply assumed faith in God. It was one of the core identities, from the lowliest peasant to the monarchs.

Around the enlightenment, cracks in this belief began to form, again mirroring the Golden Age of Greece and the teachings of the great philosophers. This has led to the current contradictions for atheists like as Richard Dawkins, who personally do not believe, but also want to maintain the cultural Christianity of England.

Against this decline, modern apologists, like Justin Martyr before them, have reignited faith, from the literature of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, to the scientific explanations of John Lennox and William Lane Craig. Faith has again become reasonable, even among the scientists and academics, as seen by the early signs of a renewed faith in America. Time will tell if this resurgence will continue, but like Augustine’s examples of Cato and Cicero, the absence of faith in the last century has led to cultural nihilism. Without faith, there is no hope; but that is a topic for the next article.