147. Faith is a gift of God
147. FAITH IS A GIFT OF GOD
What we believe—the content of faith—is from divine revelation, but our choice to believe is from our free will—is that correct?
Two things are necessary for faith. First, that the things which are of faith should be proposed to man: this is necessary in order that man believe anything explicitly. The second thing requisite for faith is the assent of the believer to the things which are proposed to him. Accordingly, as regard the first of these, faith must needs be from God. Because the things which are of faith surpass human reason, hence they do not come to man’s knowledge unless God reveal them. . . .
As regards the second, viz. man’s assent to the things which are of faith, we may observe a twofold cause, one of external inducement, such as seeing a miracle or being persuaded by someone to embrace the faith, neither of which is a sufficient cause, since of those who see the same miracle or hear the same sermon, some believe and some do not. Hence we must assert another internal cause, which moves man inwardly to assent to matters of faith.
The Pelagians held that this cause was nothing else than man’s free will, and consequently they said that the beginning of faith is from ourselves. . . . But this is false, for, since man, by assenting to matters of faith, is raised above his nature, this must needs accrue to him from some supernatural principle moving him inwardly; and this is God. Therefore faith, as regards the assent which is the chief act of faith, is (ultimately) from God moving man inwardly by grace (II-II,6,1).
Our act of faith is both a free choice and a gift of grace. (See #142, above.) For “grace perfects nature”, and therefore human nature, and therefore human freedom, which is an essential part of human nature; grace “turns on” our free will rather than turning it off.
Our faith must be a free choice, of course; but it first must be “a gift of God” because God is the universal First Cause, not ourselves. Faith is our response: to the prior grace of divine revelation without and to the prior grace of a divine movement within. Faith is not something we work up in ourselves by pushing the right psychological buttons. One does not simply “have faith”; one responds to divine revelation and invitation to believe it, either by faith (Yes) or unfaith (No).
If God did not first reveal Himself (in St. Thomas’ words, “that the things which are of faith should be proposed to man”), our faith would have no object. That is what St. Thomas calls “the first thing”, in the first paragraph above. What he calls “the second thing” is our assent. St. Thomas mentions no less than three causes of this assent. (1) One is the “external inducement, such as seeing a miracle or being persuaded by someone”. That is a catalyst, an occasion, for (2) our free choice to assent. (3) But the ultimate mover of both the external catalyst and our internal “reaction” to it is “God moving man inwardly by grace”. This was what the Pelagians denied. They thought human freedom had to be absolute.
If God can move us outwardly, by miracles or preaching (“being persuaded by someone”), without destroying or weakening our free will, all the more can He do this inwardly. Just as what comes to us from without—the miracle or the preacher—is no accident but God’s gift to us, so also is what comes from us from within, viz. the very act of assenting. For God is within as well as without, and He transcends us, transcends our ego, our self-conscious “I”, in both directions equally, though we do not usually attend to the second one. But that transcendence—we may call it the inner transcendence—is just as real as the other one, the outer transcendence. For, as St. Augustine famously observed, God is “nearer to us than we are to ourselves”. Human experience has two poles: the subjective (“I”) and the objective (“it”). God transcends both. He is not part of our material universe, nor is He part of our spiritual soul. He is neither a galaxy nor a feeling. And therefore He can be present to both, as the playwright is present to both the setting and the characters of his play.