Why Faith Is a Virtue

Description: What is faith? In what ways might faith be a virtue a component of a life well lived? How might faith be corrupted and become a vice? In Why Faith Is a Virtue Philip D. Smith builds on the work of Alasdair MacIntyre and Robert Adams to argue that faith contributes to human excellence. To make the argument Smith sorts through conflicting possible faiths and shows how some of them are not virtues at all. Nevertheless he argues that faith properly understood contributes to crucial human practices: scientific research social reform and parenting. He explains how and why faith is a virtue.