In his 2022 book, What is Saving Faith? Reflections on Receiving Christ as a Treasure, John Piper proposes that saving faith—which could be described as the initial faith by which we are justified and which perseveres to final salvation—by its very nature, contains spiritual affections. He begins by explain what he is considering, “I am asking whether such affectional realities are in the very exercise of faith itself. That is, are they part of the nature of faith? Are any of these affections so integral to saving faith that, if they were not there, we would not have saving faith?” His initial answer to the question is “yes”: “Saving faith has affectional elements without which the faith is not saving.” He goes on to explain that he is not asking about whether or not these affectional realities are necessary for final salvation, but whether they are an integral and essential element of saving faith—from the very beginning. “I want to know if any spiritual affections are integral to saving faith, not just its effects.”
Piper’s proposition was debated at the ETS annual conference in 2022 by biblical and Reformed theologians who interacted critically with Piper’s book. Two important voices which were not heard in this debate are those of Thomas Aquinas and John Calvin. In this paper, I will be arguing that, despite what one might expect, Aquinas and Calvin agree with each other against Piper, on the nature of saving faith and its relation to “love of God.” To prove this, I will first present an overview of Piper’s proposition. I will then consider the views of Aquinas and Calvin about the theological virtues of faith and charity, and the relation between them. I will conclude by arguing that though they would agree with Piper that there is a necessary relationship between charity and faith, they would disagree with Piper on two essential elements of his theory: (1) that charity is an intrinsic element of the nature of saving faith, and (2) the order of saving faith and charity. Aquinas and Calvin will be found to agree with each other, against Piper, that though saving faith never comes without charity, faith, by its very nature, precedes charity.