What is virtue?
Dan Webster most simply defines the word: “Behavior showing high moral standards.”
Yet, there are more than 30 synonyms, or what Mr. Google calls “paragons of virtue.”
A couple of handfuls include familiar words: goodness, morality, integrity, honesty, dignity, decency, purity, principles, ethics, and worthiness.
Webster’s dictionary secondly continues defining virtue as “conformity to a standard of right; a particular moral excellence.”
More technically, Mr. Google explains, “Virtue in traditional Christian angelology is the seventh highest order of the ninefold celestial hierarchy.”
What does that mean? Angelology is the study of angels which are the agents of God ranked in a traditional system one above the other according to status or authority.
Perhaps that’s too complex for those who can understand the typical dictionary meaning. It becomes more comprehensible, yet not always easy, as author Edward Sri delves into virtues through “The Art of Living.”
His book reviews “The Cardinal Virtues and the Freedom to Love.”
Basis of Sri’s writing is detailed study of Aquinas who is considered the master principle of natural law. “Good is to be done and pursued and evil avoided.”
Particular natural laws such as self-preservation, marriage and family, and the desire to know God are good for humans, Aquinas said.
Personal experiences of Sri are supported by Bible verses to relate the cardinal virtues and how they work together. Included are prudence, fortitude, temperance, and justice.
Prudence directs all other virtues. It is practical wisdom. Sri said, “Prudence enables us to decern our true good in every circumstance and to choose the right means of achieving it.”
Fortitude might also be defined as courage as it moderates personal fears. “Ordinary people need to draw upon fortitude to face the many challenges that come up on everyday life,” Sri said
Temperance regulates the attraction of pleasure. “Focus is not about denying pleasure,” Sri said. “Rather it is about taking delight in life’s greatest goods. Not one big ‘no,’ but a ‘yes’ to the true highest enjoyments in life.”
Justice is responsibility. The steady, habitual disposition to give others what is due to them.
“We owe people respect, kindness, friendliness, gratitude, truth, and fairness,” Sri said. “We owe God worship, devotion, prayer, and sacrifice.”
A handful of subchapters accompany discussion of each virtue with reflection questions at the end of each one. These often accompanied by Biblical support bring meaning to how each virtue affects one’s personal life with others including God.
Discussions of justice stress the importance of responsibility and relationships. “First things first, worship, devotion, and religion,” Sri said. “If we don’t worship God, we will worship something else.”
There are often questions about the word religion, with differences from one congregation to the next. However, Sri said, “Religion is a key disposition necessary for all human beings to flourish. It includes our will to give God the worship he deserves for who he is as God.”
Furthermore, according to Sri, justice shows honor, respect, gratitude, kindness, and generosity to all.
“Words can build up and tear down,” Sri pointed out. “Gossiping, backbiting, and talebearing generally tear down.”
To be virtuous, there is responsibility of tithing, almsgiving, and care for the poor, according to Sri.
Author of several bestselling books, host for film series and weekly podcasts, Sri is a professor at the Augustine Institute, Greenwood Village, Colorado. He taught at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas, for nine years.
Parents of eight children, Sri and his wife Elizabeth live at Littleton, Colorado. He can be contacted through his website www.edwardsri.com as well as social media sites.
The Art of Living can be acquired on the internet in audio and hardcopy.
Frank J. Buchman
Alta Vista, Kansas