I read books three or four at a time, often at starts and stops, and I take forever to get to the end of one. But I read this book in about a month and a half – which is lightning speed for me. Part of that is due to Kreeft’s simple, even homey writing style. Part is due to his straight-forward organization. And part, I admit, is due to my frustration with his approach: I just wanted to get the durned thing done with.
A Christian morality
Now, I’m a Catholic myself and I have no problem with a book on a Catholic approach to the moral life, using scripture as its structure and stories of saints for examples. It’s just not quite what I’m most interested in, so I found myself growing impatient. I wanted a deep treatment of classical (i.e., Greek) virtue ethics; instead I got a comparison of the Beatitudes with the seven deadly sins.
That’s fine. I learned (I hope) a little patience, and I also learned a little more clearly what my own interest is and where I focus. I’m interested in the basic human side of ethics or morality. I’m focused on what fundamental assumptions are necessary for people to live morally with one another.
Or, at least, I’m focused on what fundamental assumptions I need to change in myself so that I can live morally in this world.
Kreeft, however, has practicing Christians as his target audience. His main purpose is to encourage, and also to give context to the struggles that Christians face in their personal and public lives. And that brings me to the two aspects of his book that I absolutely loved.
Virtue in the public sphere
The entire first section of the book describes the relationship between personal virtue and social morality. Granted, he does so in more melodramatic terms than I would choose, but he was writing in the mid-eighties, when the threat of nuclear annihilation loomed large. Still, he connected the dots between a virtuous person and a virtuous culture, and that is no mean feat.
He gives a four-part analysis of any ethical system. All approaches to human behavior follow the same pattern:
- The problem – what is wrong with the world?
- The cause of the problem
- The solution – what the world ought to be like
- The cause of the solution – that is, the way to make things better
This structure applies to individuals as well as to the human race as a whole, and to communities of any size in between. He then contrasts various philosophical and religious systems, pointing out the limitations of each. Essentially, an error in the first, second or third stage leads to problems in the fourth.
Virtue can be fun!
The other point he makes is that a virtuous approach to life should be, well, lively. It’s not about dour or tedious “thou shalt not’s.” Rather, it’s about finding the fulness of life, the expression of human nature in its entirety.
In other words, virtue leads to freedom, joy, peace, and happiness. If it didn’t, well, what would be the point?
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