The Form of Faith

Thomas Aquinas presents what strikes me as a provocative way of understanding the relationship between faith and love. There is sometimes expressed a reticence within certain evangelical groups that some people put too great an emphasis on acts of charity without a proper balance of doctrinal instruction. The logic seems to be presented that “what good does it do to help someone with their physical needs if one does not meet their spiritual needs as well”. Can one be described as sharing one’s faith, if one does not convey the basic confession of the Christian faith? Aquinas presents an interesting approach to this question. He argues that the form of faith is charity. Voluntary acts take their species from the object to which the will is directed as an end. Things derive their species from the manner in which a form exists in natural things. The form of any voluntary act is shaped by the end to which it is directed., both because it takes nature by the end towards which it is directed and because the manner of the action is understood to by necessity correspond to the end. This does not mean that any action of “benevolence” is an act of faith. As Bertrand Russell notes albeit quite cynically there are many acts of benevolence that are by their very nature self serving. Some acts of good will are in fact done from selfish ends. However such cynicism is perhaps too quickly attributed to acts of charity. I think that one might consider in so far as acts of charity correspond to what is in fact true charity they are in fact bringing faith.