Whether Lifeless Faith Is a Gift of God?
Objection 1: It would seem that lifeless faith is not a gift of God.
For it is written (Deut. 32:4) that "the works of God are perfect." Now
lifeless faith is something imperfect. Therefore it is not the work of
God.
Obj. 2: Further, just as an act is said to be deformed through
lacking its due form, so too is faith called lifeless (_informis_)
when it lacks the form due to it. Now the deformed act of sin is not
from God, as stated above (I-II, Q. 79, A. 2, ad 2). Therefore
neither is lifeless faith from God.
Obj. 3: Further, whomsoever God heals, He heals wholly: for it is
written (John 7:23): "If a man receive circumcision on the
sabbath-day, that the law of Moses may not be broken; are you angry
at Me because I have healed the whole man on the sabbath-day?" Now
faith heals man from unbelief. Therefore whoever receives from God
the gift of faith, is at the same time healed from all his sins. But
this is not done except by living faith. Therefore living faith alone
is a gift of God: and consequently lifeless faith is not from God.
_On the contrary,_ A gloss on 1 Cor. 13:2 says that "the faith which
lacks charity is a gift of God." Now this is lifeless faith.
Therefore lifeless faith is a gift of God.
_I answer that,_ Lifelessness is a privation. Now it must be noted
that privation is sometimes essential to the species, whereas
sometimes it is not, but supervenes in a thing already possessed of
its proper species: thus privation of the due equilibrium of the
humors is essential to the species of sickness, while darkness is not
essential to a diaphanous body, but supervenes in it. Since,
therefore, when we assign the cause of a thing, we intend to assign
the cause of that thing as existing in its proper species, it follows
that what is not the cause of privation, cannot be assigned as the
cause of the thing to which that privation belongs as being essential
to its species. For we cannot assign as the cause of a sickness,
something which is not the cause of a disturbance in the humors:
though we can assign as cause of a diaphanous body, something which
is not the cause of the darkness, which is not essential to the
diaphanous body.
Now the lifelessness of faith is not essential to the species of
faith, since faith is said to be lifeless through lack of an extrinsic
form, as stated above (Q. 4, A. 4). Consequently the cause of lifeless
faith is that which is the cause of faith strictly so called: and this
is God, as stated above (A. 1). It follows, therefore, that
lifeless faith is a gift of God.
Reply Obj. 1: Lifeless faith, though it is not simply perfect with
the perfection of a virtue, is, nevertheless, perfect with a
perfection that suffices for the essential notion of faith.
Reply Obj. 2: The deformity of an act is essential to the act's
species, considered as a moral act, as stated above (I, Q. 48, A. 1,
ad 2; I-II, Q. 18, A. 5): for an act is said to be deformed through
being deprived of an intrinsic form, viz. the due commensuration of
the act's circumstances. Hence we cannot say that God is the cause of
a deformed act, for He is not the cause of its deformity, though He
is the cause of the act as such.
We may also reply that deformity denotes not only privation of a
due form, but also a contrary disposition, wherefore deformity is
compared to the act, as falsehood is to faith. Hence, just as the
deformed act is not from God, so neither is a false faith; and as
lifeless faith is from God, so too, acts that are good generically,
though not quickened by charity, as is frequently the case in
sinners, are from God.
Reply Obj. 3: He who receives faith from God without charity, is
healed from unbelief, not entirely (because the sin of his previous
unbelief is not removed) but in part, namely, in the point of ceasing
from committing such and such a sin. Thus it happens frequently that
a man desists from one act of sin, through God causing him thus to
desist, without desisting from another act of sin, through the
instigation of his own malice. And in this way sometimes it is
granted by God to a man to believe, and yet he is not granted the
gift of charity: even so the gift of prophecy, or the like, is given
to some without charity.
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