Is faith a form of love?

[Sleeping in EQ]

Ernest Gellner (a philosopher and critic) begins his work Words and Things with a quote from the realist writer Stendhal:

In the saltmines of Salzburg, they throw a bare winter branch into the worked-out depths of the mine. Two or three months later it is brought out covered with brilliant crystallizations: the tiniest twigs no bigger than a titmouse's claws, are decked with myriad diamonds, dazzling and everchanging; the original branch is unrecognizable.

I use the word crystallization to describe how, with everything that occurs, the mind discovers new perfections in the beloved. (Stendhal, On Love)

Gellner then goes on to say:

But it is not so in love alone. Things come to pass in this manner in belief as well. Faith is a form of love. The world is rich in interconnected systems of ideas. Many of them clearly posses considerable merits. But generally speaking, we can take them or leave them. Not all of them fascinate and dominate us. Mostly they hang in our cupboards like suits, to be taken out on appropriate occasions, cleaned if necessary and then put away again.

But not all of them. Some systems of ideas are exceptional. Some of them we love. Some undergo a Stendhalian crystallization.

So is faith a form of love?

[taekwondave]

I've actually always thought they were the exact same thing.

*correction - I have thought for quite some time. Not always.