The Virtues (Part 1)

What is a Virtue? What does it Mean to be Virtuous?

I know it is a bit strange to think about this, but it is an interesting question if you are interested in what it means to be good or evil—to follow Jesus or Satan. How does one become more good or evil? Does one have to do something? Think it? Drink it? Eat it? Buy it? What is the nature of being good or Virtuous? Are they the same thing?

One way to answer that is to say that if one can incorporate good acts, thoughts and words into one’s life then, in fact, you have become ‘good’. But how does one do this on a practical basis? What does ‘good’ taste, look and feel like? This is not such an easy question as one might think at first glance. In the end, ‘goodness’ is subject to much subjectivity. What is good on one situation is not necessarily so in another.

What is one to do?

The solution for philosophers was to define the ‘flavors’ of goodness in a descriptive manner as they saw them in others. They described the consistent habits of others that (to them) produced ‘good’ results on a consistent basis. They created a vocabulary to describe someone’s character. The good things they called virtues. The bad things they called vices.

Wikipedia offers a fairly helpful definition:

“Virtue (Latin virtus; Greek ἀρετή) is moral excellence of a person. A virtue is a trait valued as being good. The conceptual opposite of virtue is vice…and…Virtue is an operative habit essentially good, as distinguished from vice, an operative habit essentially evil. [I have heavily edited this text]”

Not an Act, but a State of Being

Notice that these definitions focus not on specific iterative actions, but on the overall effect of a series of such actions. In fact, it is better to think of habit as opposed to action. Acts repeated oft enough to become habits. Habits collected together form character. Finally, it is character that describes most accurately if someone is “good” or “evil”.

Wikipedia in the before mentioned article sums it up this way:

“In the Greek it is more properly called ἠθικὴ ἀρετή (ēthikē aretē). It is “habitual excellence”. It is something practiced at all times.”

Why are The Virtues Important?

I think this gives us a foundation to think about what a virtue is. I hope also that it is becoming apparent why the discussion, understanding and practice of the virtues is so vitally important to the church. The Virtues are the bedrock of Christian praxis. Without intimate knowledge of The Virtues we can have no intimate knowledge of Christ or the goodness of God. If we don’t know good—we don’t know squat.

Next time, we’ll look at some specific virtues and try to describe their essence. If you have not already done so, subscribe to the blog through your favorite RSS reader, or sign up for Goggle’s (I think it is the best) here.

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