Virtue index · Theological virtue
Faith
The theological virtue by which we believe God and all that he has revealed, trusting him who cannot deceive.
Definitions from the tradition
Aquinas, Summa Theologiae II-II, q. 4, a. 1: Following Hebrews 11:1, faith is a habit of the mind whereby eternal life is begun in us, making the intellect assent to what is not seen.
Augustine, Enchiridion 2-8: Faith believes, hope and love pray; there is no love without hope, no hope without love, and neither without faith.
Scripture, Hebrews 11:1 (KJV): “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen”
Scripture is quoted from the King James Version as given in the library’s text. Other definitions are summarized, not quoted.
Opposing vices
- Unbelief: Refusing to believe what God has revealed.
- Apostasy: Abandoning the faith once held.
Works that show faith (66)
Psalm 23Attributed to DavidThe psalm opens by resting everything on one confession, that the LORD is the speaker's shepherd.c. 1000 BC (traditional); KJV 1611The BibleAnonymousHebrews 11 recounts the faith of Abraham, Moses, and others.composed c. 1000 BCE – c. 100 CE; KJV 1611Early Christian LivesAthanasius, Jerome and othersAntony and others leave the world in faith to seek God.c. 356–420 CEConfessionsAugustine of HippoThe books trace his journey to faith, culminating in the garden at Milan.c. 397–400 CEThe Dream of the RoodAnonymousThe dreamer ends by directing all his hope to the rood, trusting that it will carry him to the feast of the saints.c. 700-750 (Ruthwell Cross); Vercelli Book c. 975Summa TheologicaThomas AquinasAquinas sets reason to the service of faith, holding that grace perfects nature.1265-1274The Trial of Joan of ArcJeanne d'Arc; Pierre Cauchon; Guillaume Bouille; T. Douglas MurrayJoan holds to her Voices and to God under pressure.1431; rehabilitation 1450-1456; Murray translation 1902The Bondage of the Will (De Servo Arbitrio)Martin LutherLuther rests the whole argument on trust in God's promise, ending with the claim that he would refuse free will in order to depend on grace alone.1525The Autobiography of Benvenuto CelliniBenvenuto CelliniIn the dark dungeon he reads the Bible from the beginning, sings the Miserere and trusts God for deliverance.1558-1563Institutes of the Christian ReligionJohn CalvinBook III, chapter 2 defines faith as a firm and sure knowledge of God's favour, sealed on the heart by the Spirit.1536; definitive Latin edition 1559The Life of St. Teresa of JesusTeresa of AvilaBefore the image of the wounded Christ in Chapter IX she gives herself to God after years of wavering.1565The Faerie Queene, Book IEdmund SpenserUna keeps faith with Redcrosse through his desertion and goes in search of help to free him from Orgoglio.1590HamletWilliam ShakespeareIn Act 5 Hamlet trusts the special providence in the fall of a sparrow and goes to the duel ready for whatever comes.c. 1600Sonnet 116William ShakespeareThe speaker's love keeps faith with the beloved when beauty fades within the sickle's compass.1609Holy Sonnet X: "Death, be not proud"John DonneDonne's confidence that death shall be no more is drawn from the Christian promise of resurrection.written c. 1609-1610; published 1633The CollarGeorge HerbertThe speaker's return rests on hearing and trusting a voice, not on winning the argument he has been having with himself.1633On His Blindness (Sonnet XIX)John MiltonThe sonnet ends in trust that God's kingly rule includes a place for the servant who cannot labor.written c. 1652-1655; published 1673Grace Abounding to the Chief of SinnersJohn BunyanAfter years of despair Bunyan rests his hope on Christ's righteousness at God's right hand rather than on his own feelings (§229).1666PenseesBlaise PascalPascal argues for the reasonableness of faith and the wager.1670The Pilgrim's ProgressJohn BunyanChristian walks by promise toward a City not yet seen. Opposing vice: Unbelief.1678The Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary RowlandsonMary RowlandsonShe turns to the Bible from Medfield at every crisis and reads her release as God's deliverance.1682The Practice of the Presence of GodBrother LawrenceAfter four years of fearing damnation, he resolves to love God whatever becomes of him and finds peace.1692The Life of Samuel JohnsonJames BoswellBefore his last communion in December 1784 he prays that his whole hope and confidence may rest on Christ's merits.1791Household Stories (Grimm's Fairy Tales)Jacob and Wilhelm GrimmHansel comforts Grethel on the night of their abandonment, telling her that God will not forsake them.1812–1857Fairy Tales (Selection)Hans Christian AndersenEliza keeps praying and knitting nettle shirts in silence even as she is led to the stake, and her brothers are freed.1835–1872The True Story of My LifeHans Christian AndersenHe opens and closes his story by thanking a loving God who directs all things for the best.1846The Tenant of Wildfell HallAnne BrontëThrough the years recorded in her diary Helen holds to prayer and Scripture, and she urges her dying husband to trust Christ rather than her. Opposing vice: Despair.1848Uncle Tom's CabinHarriet Beecher StoweTom tells Legree that his soul belongs to Christ and keeps his trust through the beatings of Chapters XXXIII and XL.1852 (serialized 1851-52)VilletteCharlotte BrontëLucy holds to her Protestant creed under Père Silas's persuasion and M. Paul's pleading, and he comes to honour her for it.1853Incidents in the Life of a Slave GirlHarriet A. JacobsAunt Martha meets the sale of her children and the dangers to her granddaughter with steady trust in God.1861Silas MarnerGeorge EliotDolly Winthrop teaches Silas to trust in a goodness larger than he can see, and he comes to say there are dealings with us.1861Apologia Pro Vita SuaJohn Henry NewmanIn Part VII he says that since his conversion he has never had one doubt, despite feeling every difficulty.1864Hans Brinker, or the Silver SkatesMary Mapes DodgeBefore consenting to the operation, Dame Brinker prays, and after Raff wakes the family kneels and reads a chapter from the Bible.1865The IdiotFyodor DostoevskyAnswering Rogozhin's question about belief, Myshkin tells of the peasant mother and her words on God's gladness.1868–69CarmillaJ. Sheridan Le FanuThe prayer an old priest teaches the frightened child Laura remains with her for years and stands against the vampire's hatred of hymns and prayers.1872The Princess and the GoblinGeorge MacDonaldIrene trusts the grandmother’s thread beyond sight. Opposing vice: Unbelief.1872The Brothers KaramazovFyodor DostoevskyAlyosha’s faith is tested against Ivan’s arguments and Zosima’s death.1880The Princess and CurdieGeorge MacDonaldCurdie steps into the princess's room when he sees no floor, because feeling for it first would be to distrust her.1883 (serialized 1882)Poems: First, Second and Third SeriesEmily DickinsonThe speaker of I never saw a moor is certain of heaven as if the chart were given.1890–1896The Story of King Arthur and His KnightsHoward PylePyle frames Excalibur as a sign of God's calling and closes the episode with a blessing of truth and faith.1903Christ LegendsSelma LagerlöfOld Faustina travels from Capri to Judaea trusting that a prophet there can heal her emperor, and is baptized Veronica.1904OrthodoxyG. K. ChestertonChapter IX explains why Chesterton trusts the Church as a living teacher after finding it truthful where he could test it.1908The Phantom of the OperaGaston LerouxChristine keeps her promise to return the ring and bury Erik, and the narrator prays over his remains that God might show him mercy.1910LepantoG. K. ChestertonThe victory cry gives the glory to the Lord with Domino Gloria, and the Pope's prayer is placed at the center of the battle.1911Saint JoanGeorge Bernard ShawAbandoned at Rheims, she trusts that God's friendship will not fail her.1923Journey of the MagiT. S. EliotThough the signs give no information, the travelers keep going and the speaker affirms there was a Birth, certainly.1927The Nature of the Physical WorldArthur EddingtonIn Chapter XV he defends religious experience as a genuine approach to reality alongside science.1928The Cost of DiscipleshipDietrich BonhoefferBonhoeffer distinguishes costly grace that calls to discipleship from cheap grace.1937Everson v. Board of EducationSupreme Court of the United StatesThe case arose from families' commitment to give their children an education shaped by their religious convictions at their own expense.1947The PlagueAlbert CamusAfter the death of Othon's son Paneloux refuses to abandon his belief, preaching that Christians must hold to God even where they cannot understand.1947Amos Fortune, Free ManElizabeth YatesAmos holds to the Christian faith he learned in the Copeland home through every loss, and his epitaph records that he professed Christianity and died hopefully.1950Prince CaspianC. S. LewisLucy wakes the others in the night and follows Aslan though only she can see him and they grumble behind her.1951Mere ChristianityC. S. LewisLewis's two chapters on faith describe holding to what reason has accepted despite changing moods, and then trusting God fully after one's own efforts fail.1952The Silver ChairC. S. LewisThe travellers untie the dangerous knight because he asks in Aslan's name, trusting the fourth Sign even though they fear what he may do.1953The Horse and His BoyC. S. LewisIn the fog Shasta tells the unseen Voice all his sorrows and learns to trust that Aslan has been guiding him all along.1954Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early LifeC. S. LewisOn the ride to Whipsnade he finds that he has come to believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.1955The Magician's NephewC. S. LewisDigory trusts Aslan and refuses Jadis's plan to steal an apple for his dying mother.1955The Last BattleC. S. LewisBound to a tree and deceived on every side, Tirian still calls on the true Aslan and is answered by the arrival of Eustace and Jill.1956Till We Have FacesC. S. LewisPsyche trusts her unseen husband in the valley although her sister can see no palace and pleads with her to doubt.1956Through Gates of SplendorElisabeth ElliotThe widows, waiting at Shell Mera and then learning of the deaths, hold to their trust that God has not failed them.1957Personal KnowledgeMichael PolanyiPart Three revives Augustine's principle that belief comes before understanding and makes trust the ground of knowledge.1958The Bronze BowElizabeth George SpeareIn desperation over Leah's fever, Daniel goes to Jesus and trusts him to come to the house.1961One Day in the Life of Ivan DenisovichAleksandr SolzhenitsynAlyoshka reads his copied Gospel in the barracks and thanks God for the chance to think of his soul.1962 (Russian; English trans. 1963)The Hiding PlaceCorrie ten BoomBetsie thanks God even for the fleas in their Ravensbrück barracks, trusting His goodness before she can see any reason for it.1971Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, SpyEric MetaxasAt Finkenwalde he leads ordinands in daily prayer, meditation on Scripture and common life under the threat of closure by the Gestapo.2010Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and RedemptionLaura HillenbrandAt the 1949 crusade he remembers his promises to God on the raft and turns his life over to Christ.2010
Quotations
“I am the Resurrection and the Life, saith the Lord: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live”
“But if thy faith had not helped me, I should never have waited for Pegasus, and never have gone up above the clouds, and never have conquered the terrible Chimæra.”
Frequently cited
“Ten thousand difficulties do not make one doubt, as I understand the subject; difficulty and doubt are incommensurate.”
“He that doth the ravens feed, Yea, providently caters for the sparrow, Be comfort to my age.”
“Lord hear all good prayers for us, for Jesus’ sake.”
Frequently cited
“Thou awakest us to delight in Thy praise; for Thou madest us for Thyself, and our heart is restless, until it repose in Thee”
Frequently cited
“Roses bloom and roses decay, But we the Christ-child shall see one day.”
Frequently cited
“my righteousness was Jesus Christ Himself, _The same yesterday_, _to-day_, _and for ever_.”
“if I were out of prison to-day, I would preach the Gospel again to-morrow, by the help of God.”
Frequently cited
“There’s a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, ’tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come. The readiness is all”
Frequently cited
“Say what God tells thee, Mother”
Frequently cited
“One short sleepe past, wee wake eternally, And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die.”
“Be easy, dear little sister, and go to sleep quietly; God will not forsake us”
Frequently cited
“Thus we simply interpret justification, as the acceptance with which God receives us into his favor as if we were righteous; and we say that this justification consists in the forgiveness of sins and the imputation of the righteousness of Christ”
“If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation that He is”
Frequently cited
“I never spoke with God, Nor visited in heaven; Yet certain am I of the spot As if the chart were given.”
“He said if God took the trouble to tell us eight hundred times to be glad and rejoice, He must want us to do it--SOME.”
Frequently cited
“The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.”
Frequently cited
“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.”
Frequently cited
“France is alone; and God is alone; and what is my loneliness before the loneliness of my country and my God?”
Frequently cited
“Since therefore grace does not destroy nature but perfects it, natural reason should minister to faith as the natural bent of the will ministers to charity”
“Yet even today when the Sun strikes that sphere--that sphere that towers over all Berlin--the light makes the sign of the cross.”
Frequently cited
“Yes, across Europe, this wall will fall. For it cannot withstand faith; it cannot withstand truth. The wall cannot withstand freedom.”
“I BEGAN the Bible from the commencement, reading and reflecting on it so devoutly, and finding in it such deep treasures of delight, that, if I had been able, I should have done naught else but study it.”
Frequently cited
“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me”
Frequently cited
“But as I rav’d and grew more fierce and wilde At every word, Me thoughts I heard one calling, Childe: And I reply’d, My Lord.”
“We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of all things visible and invisible”
“The deare remembrance of his dying Lord, For whose sweete sake that glorious badge he wore, And dead as living ever him ador'd”
“Ay me, how many perils doe enfold The righteous man, to make him daily fall, Were not that heavenly grace doth him uphold, And stedfast truth acquite him out of all.”
“I believe my being here is in the Wisdom of Christ; I know not as to Life or Death.”
“If you don’t trust your man, you may as well run away at once.”
“I am thine; do with me as thou seest best!”
Frequently cited
“mental prayer is nothing else, in my opinion, but being on terms of friendship with God, frequently conversing in secret with Him Who, we know, loves us.”
“All things fail; but Thou, Lord of all, never failest!”
“Lord, abate my great affliction, or increase my patience: but Lord, I repine not”
Frequently cited
“a picture of the many spiritual conflicts that have passed betwixt God and my soul, before I could subject mine to the will of Jesus my Master: in whose service I have now found perfect freedom.”
“as He wounded me with one hand, so he healed me with the other.”
Frequently cited
“my Bible; which was my guide by day, and my pillow by night.”
Frequently cited
“A little lifting up of the heart suffices.”
Frequently cited
“My God, I choose everything, I will not be a Saint by halves, I am not afraid of suffering for Thee, I only fear one thing, and that is to do my own will.”
“Thine Arms, then, O Jesus, are the lift which must raise me up even unto Heaven.”
“may He give you Faith (for Faith containeth Truth as a scabbard containeth its sword), and may that Faith heal all your wounds of sorrow as the sheath of Excalibur healed all the wounds of him who wore that excellent weapon”
“God is love, God is our Father, we are His children; therefore the darkest clouds will break and though right be worsted, wrong shall not triumph.”
“I would He might send me yet more, so that it might be discerned that I am come from God and that it is He Who hath sent me”
“There is a loving God, who directs all things for the best.”
Frequently cited
“It is a joy to live and to believe in God and man.”
“Every time you feel you want me, that is a sign I am wanting you.”
Frequently cited
“No! no! no! my soul an’t yours, Mas’r! You haven’t bought it,—ye can’t buy it! It’s been bought and paid for, by one that is able to keep it”
Frequently cited
“Who,—who,—who shall separate us from the love of Christ?”
“Man is forgetful, but God remembers.”
Frequently cited
“We shall rest. We shall hear the angels. We shall see heaven shining like a jewel.”
Discussion questions
- How does faith differ from opinion or wishful thinking?
- How do faith and reason work together in the authors you have read?
- What does it look like to keep faith under trial?
- Which character in your reading lived by faith?
Other virtues: Prudence · Justice · Fortitude · Temperance · Hope · Charity · Piety · Honor · Industry · Humility · Magnanimity · Friendship