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Virtue Redux

Virtue Redux

It is a common practice in American culture to put good words to bad use. The classic example is love: There was a time when it was reserved for faith, family, and country, but today it’s a buzzword to describe a desire for candy, television programs, and cars. Another annoying abuse is the use of courage in describing any athletic activity, whether playing with a stained muscle, tackling a larger player, or even demanding a bigger contract. And how about the slogan Believe in yourself, which perfectly reflects the goals of society oriented towards both self-worship and empty self-esteem?

Not coincidentally, all of these are examples of how certain virtues––love, courage, and faith––have been systematically stripped of their theological meaning and moral worth. The word virtue, being more difficult for marketers to redefine, has been replaced by the pleasant-sounding but essentially empty value. This in turn has lead to far too much rhetoric about “personal values” and “establishing values,” as though one’s personal morality should be selected like a candy bar or SUV.

The problem, as Tim Gray and Curtis Martin argue in Boys to Men: The Transforming Power of Virtue, “is that values fall short when it comes to making men moral. Having good values is a fine thing, but the battle of morality is not so much about knowing what is right as it is doing what is right” (11). Values are easily gained and lost, while virtues only come through time and effort. The example that Gray and Martin use of the man who desires to be an airplane pilot. It is not enough to value flying or to spend endless hours as a passenger––”one must have the skills of a pilot” (11). As the Catechism of the Catholic Church states, repeating the ancient wisdom of Aristotle and Aquinas, “A virtue is an habitual and firm disposition to do good” (CCC 1803). Virtue, the desire to do what is good, must be practiced, sought after, and willed. There are no shortcuts.

This book is an educational guide filled with Scripture and Tradition, written for the man wishing to pursue the cardinal virtues––prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance––and especially the theological virtues of faith, hope, and love. Since being founded in 1998, Emmaus Road Publishing has published a number of fine books about the Catholic moral life that have been practical in nature and accessible in style, with specific titles for men, women, and families. Books such as this one, plus others like Courageous Virtue: A Bible Study on Moral Excellence for Women and Many Faces of Virtue, speak to Emmaus Road’s commitment to providing attractive, solid books about holiness and the life of virtue for serious Catholics.

The moral theology taught in many American Catholic universities runs from mediocre to bad. Much of it is taught with hostility toward traditional morality, a disregard for the Magisterium, and a warm embrace of relativism. In Boys to Men the complete opposite is true––and without any academic jargon. The authors lay a firm foundation of Scripture, the Catechism, and Aquinas, demonstrating (often with examples from history and lives of the saints) the objective nature of truth and morality. Most importantly, Gray and Martin continually remind the reader that the life of virtue has one everlasting goal: “to share in [God’s] divine life and love,” for “united to God in Christ, we have an infinite source of love, which we are called to tap into” (107).

The opening chapter, “Men and Virtue,” introduces the reader to the virtues, contrasts them to values, and then reflects on the biblical call to virtue: “Make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue” (2 Pet. 1:5). Each of the next seven chapters focuses on one of the virtues, culminating, of course, with faith, hope, and love, the greatest of the virtues.

Each chapter also contains homework. At the end of each are two to four pages of questions; almost all of these questions are reflections upon passages of Scripture. The man who works through this volume should not only receive a beneficial education about the life of virtue but will also experience a thematic Bible study. In fact, Boys to Men would be a rewarding book for a group of men to work through together, sharing their struggles and discoveries with one another while learning from––and about––Scripture at the same time. Put down the M&Ms, turn off the TV, pull the SUV over, and begin reading. 
— Carl E. Olson 

Boys to Men 
By Tim Gray and Curtis Martin 
Emmaus Road Publishing (2001)
124 pages
$9.95
ISBN: 1-9310108-02-2


 

From the Heart of a Shepherd 

 

When I gave my life to Christ twenty-five years ago, I had one overwhelming desire: to find a ladder tall enough to tell the world—from the moon—that there is a Savior and that he waits to give life to all who will come to him. When at last I entered the Catholic Church, realizing it to be the Church our Savior established, I felt like one who had spent her childhood in foster care. To think that my true home on earth had been here all the while, and that it was the very one I had looked on as the farthest from home.

But, alas, wherever I travel I meet true children of my new home, cradle Catholics raised in this glorious faith who, for a myriad of reasons, know little of their faith. Over and over again I am asked to recommend a book, a study plan, a tape, a resource—a simple, understandable, bite-size way—to learn the faith and to teach it to others.

I am not at a loss for excellent resources and books. But many, if not most, seem a bit more of a challenge than the novice—whether new or long-time Catholic—might feel ready to take on. At last, at last, though, there is such a basic resource, and it comes to us from the heart of a shepherd of whom, like the apostle Paul himself, it can be said, “I have labor pains until Christ be formed in you!” (Gal. 4:19). That shepherd is Denver’s Archbishop Charles J. Chaput O.F.M. Cap., who has given us a gem—Living the Catholic Faith.

Taken from a series of Jubilee lectures, this book’s contents sweep the whole of our lives: from becoming Christians to becoming saints, from rebuilding our lives to finding our vocation, from encouraging those in our own family to making disciples of all nations.

In his opening chapter, Archbishop Chaput relates the story of our redemption through the riveting true story of an uncle and two children who face death when the engine of their small boat fails, leaving them helpless in the pull of the Niagara River and Falls. In breathtaking manner the Archbishop describes the rescue of one of the three and tells of a God who not only rescues us from death in no less dramatic fashion but who also rescues us to life, a life beyond all we had reason to expect. He speaks of a God who is personal, just, loving and forgiving, who has a plan for each of us, and who sets us free—free to love, free to say yes to God. He tells us how being one hundred percent Catholic is the only path to true freedom and joy, to being all that God has made us to be. “Being eighty percent Catholic is like being eighty percent married,” writes the Archbishop. “It doesn’t work” (17).

Every reader of this wonderful book will have an instant spiritual director in Archbishop Chaput. It doesn’t matter where we are at in our spiritual journey, only that we approach God with an open, honest heart. C. S. Lewis, the Archbishop writes, “began his adulthood as a confident and successful atheist intellectual. He had a weakness, though. He was observant, inquisitive, and honest. And he didn’t realize until too late that God lurks at the center of every natural virtue. He asked too many questions about people and life, too deeply and too honestly, and he walked right into God’s ambush” (27).

For those who choose to accept God’s love, three things are required: conversion, discipleship, and transformation. But Archbishop Chaput doesn’t simply tell us, he gives us hope. He shows us how these mandates become realities for us: through prayer, the reading of Scripture and Christian literature, through a deepening involvement with the larger mission of the Church—beginning with our family, the “domestic Church”—and by nourishing ourselves on the sacraments. His chapter on the Eucharist will cure you from ever again being a “spectator” at Mass.

Archbishop Chaput helps us to see—through stories, current events, parables, and down-to-earth illustrations. And just in case we’re not sure where he’s going, he’ll often stop and say, “Here’s my point.” It begins to feel like you’re having coffee with a friend, a caring mentor who knows our world, our struggles, the temptations we face, the dreams we hold.

Living the Catholic Faith is subtitled Rediscovering the Basics. It could as well be subtitled You will never be the same. Such will be the fate of the one who takes this book on with a sincere, open heart, follows its directives, and is determined to live fully the life to which each of us has been called.
— Rosalind Moss 

Living the Catholic Faith 
By Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap.
Servant Publications (2001)
159pages
$9.99
ISBN: 0-56955-191-X


 

A Historical Bent 

 

Brevity is the soul of wit, and being brief is a commendable quality for an apologist as well. In this slender volume Dr. Frederick Marks sets out to make the case for Catholicism in a concise and agreeable style, and he largely succeeds. Marks notes that this book presupposes that the reader is someone “willing to enlist in an honest search for truth, goodness, and beauty.”

Divided into five main sections, the book begins with “The Case for God,” moves to “The Case for Christ,” and then to “The Case for Catholicism.” The fourth section addresses “Catholicism and Scripture” and the fifth has “More on Catholicism and the Word.” A short conclusion considers what Christ would think of the Catholic Church if he took a tour of the world today.

The author has a doctorate in history, and there is a definite bent towards historical facts and anecdotes throughout. So “The Case of God” does not start with or ever turn for long to philosophical arguments, but begins by observing the comments of historical figures who jumped the gun in declaring the death of religion, especially Catholicism.

While Marks does discuss the “Problem of Pain” and “Design, Cause, and Effect,” he spends more time appealing to great names (and achievements) from the fields of music, painting, architecture, science, and government. One of this book’s strengths is the wealth of fascinating facts and quotes that come to light from the dark corridors of time. For example, the reader learns that the inventor of the laser beam taught religious-ed classes; the first chief justice of the Supreme Court was head of the American Bible Society (imagine that today); and Mozart was a devout Catholic, in contrast to modern portrayals—such as in the fictionalized movie Amadeus—as a crude playboy.

One wonders how much impact these appeals to the testimony of artists, scientists, and politicians will have on the skeptic who, while open to Catholicism, is looking for more than sound-bites and stories, no matter how good they are. While people today desperately need to be exposed to the testimony of history in favor of Catholicism, they also need to be presented with the big picture into which they can place events and persons.

Although Marks touches on this larger vision from time to time, the book would have benefited from a stronger emphasis in this regard. For instance, the Trinity is hardly mentioned and never discussed in any substantial way, even while several pages are spent on the issue of artificial contraception. Certainly the Church’s position on artificial contraception needs to be explained, but it will make much more sense and be all the more attractive if the reader already knows a bit about the central mystery of the faith, the eternal exchange of love and life within the Triune Godhead.

In his chapter on Christ, Marks does a nice job of summarizing key arguments for Christ’s divinity and Resurrection before making “The Case for Scripture.” One of the finest sections of the book shows that, historically, women were not only treated better in Christian cultures but often thrived and attained positions of authority. Later, the truth behind the Inquisitions, the Middle Ages, and the Crusades is brought out in concise fashion.

Regarding the latter, Marks makes an insightful comparison between the medieval Christian attitude toward Islam and the twentieth-century American attitude toward Nazism and Communism. The fourth chapter contains sections on the papacy, the Eucharist and the other sacraments, slavery, indulgences, and relations with the Eastern Orthodox. The final chapter is split between moral issues and the Blessed Mother, including Marian doctrines, Marian apparitions, and Jesus’ “brethren.”

Some mistakes stand out. In arguing for the scientific accuracy of Scripture, Marks takes the story of Jonah and repeats the tale of a nineteenth-century sailor who lived for several days in a whale, an urban legend which has been proven false but is still used from time to time. Marks uses the word “Protestant” too broadly, as when he talks of the “animus of Protestant theologians against tradition as a basis for dogma”—a remark that holds true for Fundamentalists but not for all Evangelicals or mainline Protestants.

In the conclusion, a number of illustrious converts are mentioned, including “Edmund Campion, John Henry Newman, and John Knox.” Alas, if only the latter were so. John Knox was a sixteenth-century anti-Catholic Reformed theologian; the convert in question was twentieth-century Anglican priest Ronald Knox.

Despite some flaws, this is an attractive and inexpensive book containing many points that will be beneficial to both the Catholic and non-Catholic reader. 
— Carl E. Olson 

A Brief for Belief 
By Frederick W. Marks 
Queenship Publishing Company (1999)
148 pages
$7.95
ISBN: 1-57918-114-7

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