Whether Unbelief Is a Sin?
Objection 1: It would seem that unbelief is not a sin. For every sin
is contrary to nature, as Damascene proves (De Fide Orth. ii, 4). Now
unbelief seems not to be contrary to nature; for Augustine says (De
Praedest. Sanct. v) that "to be capable to having faith, just as to be
capable of having charity, is natural to all men; whereas to have
faith, even as to have charity, belongs to the grace of the faithful."
Therefore not to have faith, which is to be an unbeliever, is not a
sin.
Obj. 2: Further, no one sins that which he cannot avoid, since every
sin is voluntary. Now it is not in a man's power to avoid unbelief,
for he cannot avoid it unless he have faith, because the Apostle says
(Rom. 10:14): "How shall they believe in Him, of Whom they have not
heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?" Therefore
unbelief does not seem to be a sin.
Obj. 3: Further, as stated above (I-II, Q. 84, A. 4), there are seven
capital sins, to which all sins are reduced. But unbelief does not
seem to be comprised under any of them. Therefore unbelief is not a
sin.
_On the contrary,_ Vice is opposed to virtue. Now faith is a virtue,
and unbelief is opposed to it. Therefore unbelief is a sin.
_I answer that,_ Unbelief may be taken in two ways: first, by way of
pure negation, so that a man be called an unbeliever, merely because
he has not the faith. Secondly, unbelief may be taken by way of
opposition to the faith; in which sense a man refuses to hear the
faith, or despises it, according to Isa. 53:1: "Who hath believed our
report?" It is this that completes the notion of unbelief, and it is
in this sense that unbelief is a sin.
If, however, we take it by way of pure negation, as we find it in
those who have heard nothing about the faith, it bears the character,
not of sin, but of punishment, because such like ignorance of Divine
things is a result of the sin of our first parent. If such like
unbelievers are damned, it is on account of other sins, which cannot
be taken away without faith, but not on account of their sin of
unbelief. Hence Our Lord said (John 15:22) "If I had not come, and
spoken to them, they would not have sin"; which Augustine expounds
(Tract. lxxxix in Joan.) as "referring to the sin whereby they
believed not in Christ."
Reply Obj. 1: To have the faith is not part of human nature, but it
is part of human nature that man's mind should not thwart his inner
instinct, and the outward preaching of the truth. Hence, in this way,
unbelief is contrary to nature.
Reply Obj. 2: This argument takes unbelief as denoting a pure
negation.
Reply Obj. 3: Unbelief, in so far as it is a sin, arises from pride,
through which man is unwilling to subject his intellect to the rules
of faith, and to the sound interpretation of the Fathers. Hence
Gregory says (Moral. xxxi, 45) that "presumptuous innovations arise
from vainglory."
It might also be replied that just as the theological virtues are not
reduced to the cardinal virtues, but precede them, so too, the vices
opposed to the theological virtues are not reduced to the capital
vices.
_______________________