Cultivating the Virtues

The point about the word "virtue" - if we can recapture it in its strong sense - is that it refers, not so much to "doing the right things", but to the forming of habits and hence of moral character.

I remember Rowan Williams [the Archbishop of Canterbury] describing the difference between a soldier who has a stiff drink and charges off into battle waving a sword and shouting a battle cry, and the soldier who calmly makes 1000 small decisions to place someone else's safety ahead of his or her own and then, on the 1001st time, when it really is a life-or-death situation, "instinctively" makes the right decision. That, rather than the first, is the virtue of "courage".

Yes, we modern westerners - and even more postmodern westerners - are trained by the media and public discourse to think that "letting it all out" and "doing what comes naturally" are the criteria for how to behave. There is a sense in which they are - but only when the character has been trained so that "what comes naturally" is the result of that habit-forming training.

The Christian vision of the ultimate future, the "end" or "goal" of our human vocation, takes the place within the New Testament's scheme of thought which in Aristotle's philosophical scheme (where the "virtue" language goes back to) is taken by his idea of the human telos, or goal. The way "virtue" works is that the "virtues" are the strengths of character you need to develop in the present so that you can be shaped for that ultimate goal.

- N. T. Wright, The Rebirth of Virtue: An Interview with N. T. Wright

"Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives' tales; rather, train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come." - 1 Timothy 4:7-8 (NIV)

"All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." - 2 Timothy 3:16-17 (NIV)

"Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil." - Hebrews 5:13-14 (NIV)