Theological Virtue of Charity

Saint Thomas Aquinas is one of the people accredited for having brought theology into the limelight. However, though theology existed long before the emergence of philosophers and fathers if the church, individualistic drives such as those of Aquinas brought a deeper understanding into the mysteries of theology. Modern day theology would not have gotten any bearing without the impact of philosophers and scholars who simplified the understanding of theological concepts. While it cannot be independently verified what the motivation was behind the interest in theology, it is clear that theology is what it is because of the input of the philosophers and scholars (Thomas & Pegis, 1997).

Aquinas, being motivated into the world of theology, sought to bring a number of issues into perspective. One of the critical concepts that Aquinas sought to define was the theological virtue of charity. In this endeavor, he wanted to derive the basic understanding of the virtue of charity from the perspective of theology. To make sense of this concept, Aquinas borrowed heavily from other sources to help broaden the scope of his discussion as far as a theological virtue of charity was concerned. Even though he was one of the most distinguished theologians of his time, he never wanted to be a man of his own. Aquinas borrowed heavily from the works of Aristotle, whom he thought was the giant of ideas and thoughts during that generation. Another critical source that Aquinas used to be the Summa Contra Gentiles (Thomas & Pegis, 1997). In this source, there were scriptural elements that helped him to bring out is arguments as far as a theological virtue of charity was concerned. It is critical to note that Aquinas used other sources to outline his argument...

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...y supernatural charity, a factor that makes life to be enlivened by the Holy Spirit.

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