The Emotional and Intellectual Virtue of Faith

Abstract

First paragraph: One of the chief aims philosophers strive towards in considering a question is to be clear about the nature of the specific terms used in the treatment of that question. Now, most decent people want to be “good” and “fair”, to live in a “well-governed” state with “just” laws and policies (or at least we claim that we do). We get into problems and arguments, however, when it comes to light that people have different—and, often, competing—understandings about what it means to be good, or for a law to be just. Coming to grips with these core, foundational terms is therefore crucial if we want to get anything done in the direction of, say, justice. Accordingly, thinking about “faith” begins with considering what exactly it is…is faith a belief, an expectation, a promise? In traditional Christian theology, faith is of course held to be one of the three primary virtues, alongside hope and love. In what follows, I would like to consider the idea of faith as a virtue, and, specifically, as a jointly emotional and intellectual virtue