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Why did Thomas Aquinas describe faith as an act of the intellect guided by the will?

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St. Thomas Aquinas Enthroned Between the Doctors of the Old and New Testaments, with Personifications of the Virtues, Sciences, and Liberal Arts, fresco by Andrea da Firenze, c. 1365; in the Spanish Chapel of the Church of Santa Maria Novella, Florence. — Thomism *St. Thomas Aquinas Enthroned Between the Doctors of the Old and New Testaments, with Personifications of the Virtues, Sciences, and Liberal Arts*, fresco by Andrea da Firenze, c. 1365; in the Spanish Chapel of the Church of Santa Maria Novella, Florence.

Thomas Aquinas described faith as an act of the intellect assenting to the truth at the command of the will because, unlike knowledge, faith does not compel belief through self-evidence or logical demonstration.1

In the Thomist view, knowledge (scientia) arises from propositions that are either self-evident or proven through reason, leaving no room for doubt or choice. Conversely, the propositions of faith are accepted based on the authority of God as their ultimate guarantor. Because these truths do not force the mind to assent, the believer must make a voluntary, free, and responsible choice to accept them.1

By characterizing faith as an act of the intellect guided by the will, Aquinas emphasizes that faith is a virtuous, free commitment rather than a forced intellectual conclusion or a mere opinion. This distinction is central to his theology, as it preserves the role of human freedom and responsibility in the act of belief while maintaining that faith supplements, rather than replaces, the findings of sound philosophy.1