More on Faith as human action, this time with footnotes

Appropos the question of whether faith is a mental work and the apparently intuitive understanding of the Catholics who recognize faith as an action, the Glossary to the Catechism defines faith as "both a gift of God and a human act by which the believer gives personal adherence to God who invites his response, and freely assents to the whole truth that God has revealed...Faith is both a theological virtue given by God as grace, and an obligation which flows from the first commandment of God." That seems pretty dead on with what the responses I received when I put the same question to Catholics. Likewise, Section 26 of the Catechism reads:

Faith is man's response to God, who reveals himself and gives himself to man, at the sme time bringing man a superabundant light as he searches for the ultimate meaning of his life."

Section 1814 reads:

Faith is the theological virtue by which we beleive in God and believe all that he has said and revealed to us, and that Holy Church proposes for our belief, because he is truth itself. By faith "man freely commits his entire self to God." For this reason the believer seeks to know and do God's will." The righteous shall live by faith." Living faith "work[s] through charity."

"In faith, the human intellect and will cooperate with divine grace..." Catechism Section 155.

Fascinating, actually, how this idea that "faith" involves human action is intuitively understood by Catholics who, such as me, have never had any formal religious education.

Equally fascinating is the attitude of Protestants who do adhere to a hermetically sealed view of faith and works. That approach strikes me as odd inasmuch as the source of the idea is apparently to avoid "works righteousness" [which seems to be a very bad thing] and yet "faith" in the "faith alone" economy of salvation has all the earmarks of "works righteousness" - "faith" is in fact something you do which then "entitles" you to Heaven. I understand that is theologically wrong on all kinds of nuanced grounds, but when I have heard a large number of "faith alone" types talk about a personal saving faith that's in fact what they are saying. My late Father-in-Law, for example, was that kind of a believer. His purported last words were that "he loved Jesus more than anything else," which was apparently true since he couldn't be bothered to see his baby granddaughter or to walk his daughter down the aisle on her wedding day since one never knew when the Lord would call one to one's reward. The sad part, of course, in my mind, was that he never understood that "faith" was only one of the theological virtues, the other two being "hope" and "charity" [Catechism Section 1817 - 1827], something which gets unfortunately lost, I believe, in a "faith alone" philosophy.