Topic: Do Catholics believe in faith alone?

Date originally posted: November 8, 2002

Source of this posting: Moderator response to emailed question

Moderator who originally posted this source: Father Phillip

Question: Is it acceptable to say that Catholics believe in Faith Alone? I have always thought that this was a strictly fundementalist view (one that I am tending to agree with), but I recently read the following excert from Justification by Faith(the joint document from the Lutheran- Roman Catholic Dialgoue Group in 1983):Catholics can speak of justification by faith or even of justification by faith alone insofar as they teach, as do Lutherans that nothing prior to the free gift of faith merits justification...The document then goes on to explain how Catholics stress that this belief will bring about good works. I really like this explanation, and feel like this is a great stride towards rectifying one of the major differences between Protestants and Catholics... but is the entire Church in agreement that we can say we believe that faith alone (with good works inevitably following true faith) is enough to justify? Thanks.

Answer: 

The best answer to your question, in my opinion, is to say that GRACE which is received by FAITH brings salvation AND that good works always flow from true faith.

Saying simply "faith alone" can be misconstrued to suggest that it's up to the individual believer's personal act of faith to bring about salvation and justification.

The fact, of course, that God offers us the grace to accept, in and by faith, the grace of salvation. So, GOD is always the primary and first "Actor" in the drama of bringing salvation to the world. We human beings are privileged to co-operate with God in response to the Divine Initiative.

Now, with regard to your question about whether "the entire Church [is] in agreement", I feel fairly confident in saying that the answer, technically, is "no." One can almost always find somebody who disagrees.

But would I say that the Church -- magisterially and generally -- would be comfortable with the formulation of the Lutheran-Roman Catholic Dialogue on this matter? To that somewhat more nuanced question, I would be fairly comfortable saying, "yes."

Hope this helps. And thank you for visiting Catholic QandA!

Blessings,
Father Phillip