I am a theistic skeptic, but if I have a theistic virtue I do not demand God's grace (whatever it is I expect or need from Him). Is this a virtue? Or Is this a vice?

Galatians 5:22-24 (ESV): > 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is **love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness**, 23 **gentleness, self-control**; against such things there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. To what extent can non-Christians develop and manifest the fruit of the Spirit? Is there a theoretical limit that prevents non-Christians from fully developing and manifesting these virtues, that only Christians with access to the power of the Spirit can surpass? What about other religions, such as Buddhism, Hinduism or Islam, that value moral virtues and have their own saints and ethical systems? ______ Related: https://christianity.stackexchange.com/q/87067/50422

1 Peter 5:5-7 (ESV): > 5 Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for **“God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”** 6 **Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you**, 7 casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. James 4:6-10 (ESV): > 6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, **“God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”** 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 **Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you**. - First of all, what do Peter and James mean by being *proud* and *humble*? What are the Biblical definitions of *pride* and *humility*? - Why does God oppose the proud but give grace to the humble? What is the logic behind this principle/law? - Is there something inherently wrong about being proud? Why is pride a bad thing? - Is there something inherently good about being humble? Why is humility a good thing? ______________ ***Note**: I don't intend this question to be opinion-based, so I would rather encourage answers that draw on reputable sources, e.g., the works of reputable Christian philosophers or theologians that have discussed this question before, etc. Alternatively, if a denomination has an official denominational answer to the question, it would be great to know about that.* _____________ ***Note 2**: I reworded this question to match the style of this one: https://christianity.stackexchange.com/q/83011/50422*

Love is, without question, the most fundamental virtue and principle of Christianity. The Apostle John makes this very clear: > 7 Beloved, let us love one another, **for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God**. 8 **Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love**. [1 John 4:7-8, ESV] The Apostle Paul seconds this in 1 Corinthians 13: > If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, **but have not love**, **I** > **am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal**. 2 And if I have prophetic > powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have > all faith, so as to remove mountains, **but have not love**, **I am nothing**. > 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be > burned, **but have not love, I gain nothing**. > > 4 **Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant** 5 **or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;** 6 **it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.** 7 **Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.** > > 8 **Love never ends**. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for > tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For > we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect > comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like > a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I > became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror > dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know > fully, even as I have been fully known. > > 13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; **but the greatest of these is love**. And how to forget Jesus' own words in Matthew 22: > 34 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, **“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind**. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: **You shall love your neighbor as yourself**. 40 **On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets**.” [Matthew 22:34-40, ESV] With love being such a fundamental and central core principle of Christianity, a question that one should naturally ask next is: *how to have this kind of love?* Is *love* (the Christian concept of *love*) a quality that can be cultivated, developed and increased over time? If so, *how*? Are there **concrete spiritual practices** that can increase a Christian's capacity to experience and express *love*? Assuming that different denominations might answer these questions differently, I'd rather play it safe by requesting an **overview** of spiritual practices.

Caravaggio: *The Sacrifice of Isaac* (1603) In Genesis 22 we read that God tested (or "put to the test", or "tempted" - the Hebrew verb **נָסָה** [*nacah*] bears all these meanings) Abraham, saying to him: "Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering [**עֹלָה** - *`olah*] on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you." (Gen 22:2 ) In the end, as we all know, God (or "the Lord’s angel") stopped Abraham, and provided a ram "caught in the bushes by its horns" in replacement of Isaac (Gen 22:13 ), and in the end the Lord (or "the Lord’s angel") praised Abraham "because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son" and renewed His promise to make hism "the father of a multitude of nations". (Gen 22:15-18 ) In the *Letter to the Hebrews*, Abraham stands out in the hall of fame of *People Commended for Their Faith*: > 17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac. > He had received the promises, yet he was ready to offer up his only > son. 18 God had told him, “Through Isaac descendants will > carry on your name,” 19 and he reasoned that God could even > raise him from the dead, and in a sense he received him back from > there. (Heb 11:17-19 ). Paul, in his Letter to the Romans, seems to affirm that Abraham's justification is **through his faith only**: > “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” > (Rom 4:3 ; quot. from Gen 15:6 ) Then Paul, though, only few verses on in the same passage, affirms: > Against **hope** Abraham [he] believed in **hope** with the result that he > became *the father of many nations* Gen 17:5 according to the > pronouncement, “*so will your descendants be* [as numerous as the > stars in the sky - [Gen 15:5\]][9] .” (Rom 4:18 ) Based on this verse, the expression "to hope against hope " has become a common idiom, meaning something like "to continue to hope for something even though it seems unlikely to happen". The original Greek expression translated by NET (and similarly by others) "Against hope [he] believed in hope", is παρ’ἐλπίδα ἐπ’ἐλπίδι ἐπίστευσεν (lit. "beyond hope, upon hope [he] believed"). "Against" is an improper translation of παρά. **Was Abraham's hope something ultimately irrational? What did Abraham believe? What did he hope for?** Is faith really enough to explain Abraham's behaviour, or is it necessary to consider at least another "ingredient": hope? ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Almost all religions teach good morals and virtues to their followers. In the case of Christianity the Lord Jesus Christ is not only the center of Christianity, but also the highest perfect model that Christians should follow. Jesus taught and practiced many virtues that we read in the New Testament, some of which can be seen in some form in other religions that preexist Christianity. However, there are some teachings that Jesus taught and practiced which do not seem to be present in any ancient religions. Therefore, my question: **Is there any virtue or teaching based on the New Testament that is unique to Jesus till today?**

**Question:** Can baptized non-Catholics be virtuous? Does the answer differ for cardinal and theological virtues? Can they be only if they have an at least implicit wish to become catholic, if so, what does this implicit wish consists in?

St. Paul says that faith, hope and love remain and the greatest of these is love; I've heard it reasoned that faith and hope aren't needed once you've been in the presence of God - but love alone remains in Heaven. So, while Jesus was man roaming the Earth (who since the beginning was with God and was God), did he have recourse the theological virtues of Faith or Hope?

I assume the existence of God a priori. I am looking for an answer from a Catholic perspective.

From my limited understanding of Catholic theology, the theological virtues (*pistis*, *elpis*, *agape*) apply to God and God's promises. That is, *pistis* is belief in the correctness of divine revelation, *elpis* is the hope of eternal life, and *agape* is love for God. The standard English translation (faith, hope, and love/charity) gives a somewhat broader impression, however. Are these virtues interpreted as applying to somewhat wordly things, as well? Are they virtues in their **common meanings**? For example: - Does *pistis* include faith in other human beings in the colloquial sense (not exclusive of faith in God) ? - Does *elpis* include hope that God will save one from worldly temptation? From depression or disease? Hope that one will be physically saved from danger? Hope that one will be saved by "accident" or by other people (possibly interpreted as ultimately attributable to God)? - Does *agape* include a general love of humans for humanity? Charitable giving?