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Charity by William-Adolphe Bouguereau. Charity is held to be the ultimate perfection of the human spirit because it both glorifies and reflects the nature of God. Confusion can arise from the multiple meanings of the English word "love". As with other theological virtues, charity is divinely infused into the soul; it resides in the will. [7]
Charity is a Divinely infused virtue, inclining the human will to cherish God for his own sake above all things, and man for the sake of God. To love God is to wish Him all honour and glory and every good, and to endeavour, as far as one can, to obtain it for Him.
[5] The third virtue is also commonly referred to as "charity", as this is how the influential King James Bible translated the Greek word agape. The traditional understanding of the difference between cardinal and theological virtues is that the latter are not fully accessible to humans in their natural state without assistance from God. [6]
Apart from this original meaning, charity is etymologically linked to Christianity, with the word originally entering the English language through the Old French word charité, which derived from the Latin caritas, a word commonly used in the Vulgate New Testament to translate the Greek word agape (ἀγάπη), a distinct form of love.
The word agape received a broader usage under later Christian writers as the word that specifically denoted Christian love or charity (1 Corinthians 13:1–8), or even God himself. The expression "God is love" (ὁ θεὸς ἀγάπη ἐστίν) occurs twice in the New Testament: 1 John 4:8;16.
Charity is also the usual English form of the name of Saint Charity, an early Christian child martyr, who was tortured to death with her sisters Faith and Hope. She is known as Agape in Biblical Greek and as Caritas in Church Latin and her name is translated differently in other languages.
The Hebrew Bible teaches the obligation to aid those in need, but does not employ one single term for this obligation. [3] The term tzedakah occurs 157 times in the Masoretic Text, typically in relation to "righteousness" per se, usually in the singular, but sometimes in the plural tzedekot, in relation to acts of charity.
In Christian theology, good works, or simply works, are a person's (exterior) actions and deeds that align with the moral teachings, emphasizing compassion, charity, kindness and adherence to biblical principles, in contrast to inner qualities such as grace or faith.