Aquinas on Faith and Charity

Charity plays a crucial role in Thomas Aquinas's view of faith. However, there is a tension in his writings between this fact and some passages that suggest that there may be faith without charity and that faith may merely consist of an intellectual act. In this essay, I explore this tension, which has been neglected in the literature. My thesis is that, although there are tensions and lack of clarity that characterize Aquinas's treatment of this subject, it can be said that he believed that faith is impossible without the intervention of charity, however exiguous this intervention may be.