Book Access - "Charity" Ch. 14 of "Virtue Stands in the Middle" Dr. Gustafson

Chapter 14 

Dr. Christopher Gustafson, STD is a Catholic theologian in the United States. GPQ did an interview with him in January of 2022 on his upcoming book, Virtue Stands in the Middle, which you can access  here. More recently, GPQ talked with Dr. Gustafson regarding the virtue of digital temperance, which is available  here. Dr. Gustafson has graciously offered to share parts of his upcoming book on virtue. The work not only delves in Catholic tradition and teaching on virtue and vice, but offers access to many images of the symbolism and iconographic tradition of the Seven Lady Virtues. Below is access to chapter fourteen. 

Definition: Charity loves God above all things for His own sake, and our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God. Charity is the greatest virtue: “the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13:13). But it presupposes and is rooted in the virtue of faith because one cannot love God if one does not believe in Him. The words charity and love are often used synonymously. However, charity is only used with regard to the theological virtue given at baptism, while love can refer to the theological virtue as well as any number of natural types of love (filial love, erotic love, love of things, etc.) We are familiar with the natural love that a mother has for her children. This love could be defined as desiring the good for another. A mother desires good for her child – she loves her child with her own love. This is different than the charity we saw in Mother Teresa. St. Teresa of Calcutta loved with God’s love. She loved God with her whole heart and loved others with, through and by means of God’s love. The virtue of charity gave Mother Teresa a far greater capacity to love. She had a supernatural capacity to love demonstrated by her whole life of intense prayer and service to the poor.