Whether Charity Is the Greatest of the Theological Virtues?
Objection 1: It would seem that charity is not the greatest of the
theological virtues. Because, since faith is in the intellect, while
hope and charity are in the appetitive power, it seems that faith is
compared to hope and charity, as intellectual to moral virtue. Now
intellectual virtue is greater than moral virtue, as was made evident
above (Q. 62, A. 3). Therefore faith is greater than hope and charity.
Obj. 2: Further, when two things are added together, the result is
greater than either one. Now hope results from something added to
charity; for it presupposes love, as Augustine says (Enchiridion
viii), and it adds a certain movement of stretching forward to the
beloved. Therefore hope is greater than charity.
Obj. 3: Further, a cause is more noble than its effect. Now faith and
hope are the cause of charity: for a gloss on Matt. 1:3 says that
"faith begets hope, and hope charity." Therefore faith and hope are
greater than charity.
_On the contrary,_ The Apostle says (1 Cor. 13:13): "Now there remain
faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is
charity."
_I answer that,_ As stated above (A. 3), the greatness of a virtue,
as to its species, is taken from its object. Now, since the three
theological virtues look at God as their proper object, it cannot be
said that any one of them is greater than another by reason of its
having a greater object, but only from the fact that it approaches
nearer than another to that object; and in this way charity is
greater than the others. Because the others, in their very nature,
imply a certain distance from the object: since faith is of what is
not seen, and hope is of what is not possessed. But the love of
charity is of that which is already possessed: since the beloved is,
in a manner, in the lover, and, again, the lover is drawn by desire
to union with the beloved; hence it is written (1 John 4:16): "He
that abideth in charity, abideth in God, and God in him."
Reply Obj. 1: Faith and hope are not related to charity in the same
way as prudence to moral virtue; and for two reasons. First, because
the theological virtues have an object surpassing the human soul:
whereas prudence and the moral virtues are about things beneath man.
Now in things that are above man, to love them is more excellent than
to know them. Because knowledge is perfected by the known being in
the knower: whereas love is perfected by the lover being drawn to the
beloved. Now that which is above man is more excellent in itself than
in man: since a thing is contained according to the mode of the
container. But it is the other way about in things beneath man.
Secondly, because prudence moderates the appetitive movements
pertaining to the moral virtues, whereas faith does not moderate the
appetitive movement tending to God, which movement belongs to the
theological virtues: it only shows the object. And this appetitive
movement towards its object surpasses human knowledge, according to
Eph. 3:19: "The charity of Christ which surpasseth all knowledge."
Reply Obj. 2: Hope presupposes love of that which a man hopes to
obtain; and such love is love of concupiscence, whereby he who
desires good, loves himself rather than something else. On the other
hand, charity implies love of friendship, to which we are led by
hope, as stated above (Q. 62, A. 4).
Reply Obj. 3: An efficient cause is more noble than its effect: but
not a disposing cause. For otherwise the heat of fire would be more
noble than the soul, to which the heat disposes the matter. It is in
this way that faith begets hope, and hope charity: in the sense, to
wit, that one is a disposition to the other.
________________________