The Virtues, or The Examined Life

by Cessario, Romanus

• ISBN13: 9780826413888
• ISBN10: 0826413889
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-05-30
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Summary

The chief characteristic of Christian morality is its being linked to the person of Jesus Christ who is himself the universal, personal, and concrete norm of moral action. This book is about the virtues of the Christian life--both the theological virtues (faith, hope, and charity) and the cardinal virtues (prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance)--and it deals particularly with the question, how it is possible for believers to decide for the morally good and to live accordingly. Reflecting on the basic questions of Christian morality, the book offers a commentary on the corresponding sections of The Catechism of the Catholic Church.

Author Biography

Romanus Cessario is a professor at St. John's Seminary in Brighton, Massachusetts, and at the theological institute of Fribourgh, Switzerland.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	p. i
Introduction	p. v
The Theological Virtues	p. 1
Faith and the Life of Christian Virtue	p. 3
What the Angels See: Nature and Grace	p. 3
Natural and Gospel Law	p. 7
The Virtuous Life	p. 9
The Gifts of the Holy Spirit	p. 13
Faith and the Gifts of Understanding and Knowledge	p. 19
The Gift of Wisdom	p. 27
Our Lady and the Recollected Life	p. 30
Theological Hope and Christian Expectation	p. 33
The Virtuousness of Theological Hope	p. 33
Hope and the Promise of Happiness	p. 37
Hope and the Love of Desire	p. 42
The Provisional Character of Hope	p. 45
Despair as Anticipation of Nonfulfillment	p. 48
The False Hope of Presumption	p. 50
The Gift of the Fear of the Lord	p. 52
Theological Charity and Communio	p. 61
Charity, The Realization of Friendship	p. 61
The Distinctiveness of Christian Virtue	p. 67
Charity, the Form of the infused Moral Virtues	p. 73
Persons in the Communio	p. 75
The Priorities of Charity	p. 84
The Realization of Christian Communio	p. 87
The Fruits of Charity	p. 91
The Moral Virtues	p. 97
Christian Prudence and Practical Wisdom	p. 99
"But we have the mind of Christ" (1 Cor 2: 16)	p. 99
What Is Christian Virtue?	p. 100
The Nature of Christian Prudence	p. 105
Prudence and the Moral Virtues	p. 110
The Elements of Prudence	p. 115
The Vices Opposed to Prudence	p. 118
The Gift of Counsel	p. 122
Christian Justice and Human Society	p. 127
"But strive first for the kingdom of God and his justice" (Mt 6: 33)	p. 127
The Justum, or the Right	p. 129
The Virtue of Justice	p. 132
The Virtues Allied to Justice	p. 143
Religion	p. 148
The Acts of the Virtue of Religion	p. 152
The Gift of Piety	p. 155
Fortitude and the Courage of Christ	p. 157
Christian Anthropology and Human Emotion	p. 157
The Virtues of Personal Discipline	p. 162
Virtue and Value-Free Theories	p. 165
The Cardinal Virtue of Fortitude	p. 167
Fortitude and Martyrdom	p. 170
The Vices and Sins against Fortitude	p. 171
The Components of Fortitude, and the Gift of the Holy Spirit	p. 173
Christian Moderation and Temperance	p. 177
Human Action and Human Biology	p. 177
The Dignity of the Human Person	p. 180
The Virtue of Temperance	p. 182
The Makeup and Kinds of Temperance	p. 186
Chastity, Abstinence, and Sobriety	p. 187
The Vices Opposed to Temperance	p. 192
Infused Temperance and Christian Humility	p. 194
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