English · An Entry in the Library
Charity
Charity is the third and greatest theological virtue: for Aquinas it is friendship with God — a love, poured in by grace, by which we love God for his own sake and our neighbour in him. It is “the form of the virtues.”
Charity is the third and greatest of the theological virtues. For Aquinas it is nothing less than friendship with God — a love, poured into the soul by grace, by which we love God for his own sake, and our neighbour in him.
What is charity?
Charity is a virtue which, when our affections are perfectly ordered, unites us to God, for by it we love Him.
— Summa Theologica, IIa-IIae Q.23, a.3 (quoting Augustine)
Why is charity the greatest of the virtues?
“The greater of these is charity.” For faith and hope will pass away, but charity abides — it attains God himself, that it may rest in him.
— Summa Theologica, IIa-IIae Q.23 (citing 1 Cor. 13:13)
How does charity relate to the other virtues?
Charity is called the form of the virtues, for it directs the acts of all the other virtues to their last end.
— after Summa Theologica, IIa-IIae Q.23, a.8