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.

Philip D. Smith is Professor of Philosophy at George Fox University in Newberg, Oregon. He is the author ofThe Virtue of Civility in the Practice of Politics and, with Mark McLeod-Harrison,Being at Home in the World. He has also published fiction ebooks:The Heart of the Sea andBuying the Bangkok Girl.