Dist. 23
by St. Bonaventure
Source text: Public Domain Mark 1.0. English translation/apparatus/encoding: CC BY-NC 4.0, Wroot Press.
https://bonaventure.wrootpress.com/browse/3/d/23/q/bon-sent-III-d23-littera
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### Cap. I. *Whether Christ had faith, hope, as charity.*

But since it has been set forth above that Christ was full of grace, it is not superfluous to inquire whether he had faith and hope, as charity. For if he lacked these, he does not seem to have had the fullness of graces. But that this question may be more clearly explained, some things must be brought forward concerning these matters individually; and first concerning faith, *according to the measure of which* the Apostle commands *each one to be wise*.

### Cap. II. *What faith is.*

«Faith is a virtue by which the things that are not seen are believed»; which nevertheless is not to be understood of all the things that are not seen, but only of those things which to believe, as Augustine says, «pertains to religion». For there are many things which, if a Christian is ignorant of them, nothing is to be feared, because he does not on that account deviate from religion.

### Cap. III. *In how many ways faith is spoken of.*

Now faith is taken in three ways, namely for that by which one believes and is a virtue; and for that by which one believes and is not a virtue; and for that which is believed, which is other than that by which one believes. Hence Augustine says: «The things which are believed are one thing, the faith by which they are believed another; for those are in things, which are said either to be, or to have been, or to be about to be; but this is in the mind of the believer, conspicuous only to him whose it is». And yet by the name of faith both are reckoned, namely both that which is believed, and that by which one believes. That which is believed

is called faith, as there: «This is the catholic faith, which unless each one believe faithfully and firmly, he cannot be saved». But the faith by which one believes, if it be with charity, is a virtue, because «charity, as Ambrose says, is the mother of all the virtues», which informs them all, without which there is no *true* virtue. Faith therefore *working through love* is a virtue, by which the things not seen are believed. This is the *foundation*, which cannot be changed, as the Apostle says, which, placed in the foundation, lets no one perish. Hence Augustine: «The *foundation* is Christ Jesus, that is, the faith of Christ, namely that which *works through love*, by which Christ *dwells in hearts*, which lets no one perish; but the other is not a *foundation*. For faith without love is empty, faith with love belongs to the Christian, the other belongs to the demon. For *the demons believe and tremble*». «But it makes a great difference whether one believes *Christ*, or believes *in Christ*. For that he is *Christ*, the demons believed, yet they did not believe *in Christ*».

### Cap. IV. *What it is to believe God, or to believe a God, or to believe in God.*

«For it is one thing to believe *in God*, another to believe *God*, another to believe *a God*. To believe *God* is to believe that the things he speaks are true; which even the wicked do, and we believe a *man*, but *not in a man*. To believe *a God* is to believe that he himself is God; which even the wicked do. To believe *in God* is by believing to love, by believing to go into him, by believing to cleave to him and to be incorporated into his members». By this faith «the impious is justified, so that thereafter the faith itself may begin to work through love». For those alone are to be called good works which are done through the love of God. For love itself is called the work of faith. Therefore faith, which the demons and false Christians have, is a quality of the mind, but unformed, because it is without charity. For that the wicked also have faith, while nevertheless they lack charity, the Apostle shows, saying: *If I should have all faith, but have not charity* etc.; which faith can also be called a gift of God, because even in the wicked there are certain gifts of God.

### Cap. V. *On the unformed quality of mind which is in the wicked Christian.*

But if it be asked whether that unformed quality, by which the wicked Christian believes all the things which the good Christian believes, with charity coming upon it, remains and *becomes a virtue*, or whether it is eliminated, and another quality succeeds, which is a *virtue*; either may be said without danger; to me, however, it seems that that quality which was there before remains and at the accession of charity becomes a *virtue*.

### Cap. VI. *How faith is said to be one.*

And since faith is spoken of in diverse ways, it must nevertheless be confessed that faith is *one*, as the Apostle says: *One Lord, one faith*. For whether faith be taken for that which is believed, or for that by which one believes, it is rightly called *one* faith. If it be taken for that *which* is believed, from this understanding it is called *one faith*, because we are commanded to believe the same thing, and it is one and the same which is believed by all the faithful. Hence faith is called *catholic*, that is, universal. But if faith be taken for that *by which* one believes, for this reason it is said to be *one* faith, not because it is one in number in all, but in kind, that is, in likeness. Hence Augustine in the thirteenth book on the Trinity: «The faith which those who have it are called faithful, and those who do not, unfaithful, is common to all the faithful, just as a face is said to be common to many men, although each has his own. For faith is not *one in number*, but *in kind*, which, while it is in one, is also in others, not the same, but similar, and because of the likeness we say it to be *one* rather than *many*. Just as the will of those willing the same thing is called *one*, although each has *his own* will; and the face of two who are most alike is said to be *one*».

### Cap. VII. *That faith is properly of those things which are not seen, yet it itself is seen by him in whom it is.*

It is also to be noted that faith is properly only of things not apparent. Hence Gregory: «Things apparent do not have faith, but recognition». The same: «Since Paul says: *Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the argument of things not apparent*; this is truly said to be believed, which cannot be seen. For now that cannot be believed which can be seen». «Thomas saw one thing, and believed another: he saw a man and confessed God, saying: *My Lord and my God*». Of this also Augustine says: «Each one sees that faith itself is in his heart, if he believes, or is not, if he does not believe; not as bodies, which we see with the eyes of the body, and through their images, which we hold in memory, we think also of things ab-

sent; nor as the things which we have not seen, and from those which we have seen, we somehow form by thought and commend to memory; nor as a man, whose soul, even if we do not see it, we conjecture from our own, and we behold a man also by thinking, from the motions of the body, as we have learned by seeing: not thus is faith seen in the heart, in which it is, by him whose it is, but a most certain knowledge holds it. Since therefore we are commanded to believe for this reason, that we cannot see what we are commanded to believe; yet we see the faith itself, when it is in us, in us, because faith is *present* of things *absent*, and faith is *within* of things which are *without*, and faith is *seen* of things which are *not seen*; and it itself comes to be temporally in the hearts of men, and if from faithful they become unfaithful, it perishes from them». By these words it is evidently handed down that faith itself is seen in the heart of a man by the man himself, not corporeally, not by imagination, but intellectually; and that it nevertheless is of things absent and of those which are not seen. For as Augustine says elsewhere: «We believe, that we may know; we do not know, that we may believe. For what is faith, if not to believe what you do not see? Faith therefore is to believe what you do not see; truth is to see what you have believed». Hence faith is rightly called the *argument* — or *conviction* — of things not apparent, because, if there is faith, from it it is convinced and proved that there are some things not apparent, since faith is only of things not apparent.

### Cap. VIII. *The description of faith.*

For the Apostle says: *Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the argument* — or conviction — *of things not apparent*, because through faith the things to be hoped for subsist in us even now and will subsist in the future through experience. And it itself is the proof and conviction of things not apparent, because, if anyone doubts about these, they are proved through faith, as the future resurrection is still proved, because the Patriarchs and other Saints so believed; or it is the proof and certitude that there are some things not apparent, as was said above. But faith is properly called the *substance of things hoped for*, because it underlies the things to be hoped for and because it is the *foundation* of good things, which no one can change. But if it be asked whether this description fits *hope*; it can well be granted *either way*. If, however, it be said to *fit*, there are also many other things by which faith and hope differ. But it can not improperly be said to fit *faith alone*, not hope; because faith alone is called the *foundation*, not because faith-as-*virtue* could be without hope and charity.

### Cap. IX. *Why faith alone is called the foundation.*

Hence it is also rightly called the *foundation* of all virtues and good works. But it is not the foundation of *charity*, because it is not the cause of charity, but charity is the cause of the virtue itself of faith. For charity is the cause and mother of all the virtues, «which if it be lacking, the rest are had in vain; but if it be present, all are had». For charity is the Holy Spirit, as was indicated above. It itself therefore is the cause of all the virtues, nor is any of the virtues the cause of it, because it surpasses all gifts. Hence Augustine: «Look to the gifts of the Church, and you will recognize the gift of charity as more excellent than all», «which, like oil, cannot be pressed to the bottom, but leaps up above». Therefore faith is not its cause or foundation. — Gregory, however, on Ezekiel says, «that, unless faith first be held, one in no way attains to spiritual love. For charity does not precede faith, but faith precedes charity, because no one can love what he has not believed», just as neither hope it. — But this can be taken as said of faith which is not a virtue; for it frequently precedes hope and charity; or of the act of faith, which perhaps naturally precedes the act of charity, as it does the act of hope; which the words set down above, diligently noted, suggest, and also those which he adds, saying: «Unless, he says, you believe the things you hear, you will not be inflamed to love the things you hear»; which is only of things not seen, as we said before. Hence John Chrysostom does so: «Faith in our soul makes to subsist the things which are not seen, of which faith properly is; for of things seen there is not faith, but recognition».

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