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As an introduction to Catholic ethics, I really enjoy this lecture. Topics covered include the human will, cardinal virtue, the distinction between moral and intellectual virtues, the struggle with passions, and also the Golden Mean.

In particular, pay attention to the segment that begins shortly after the half-hour mark. Any virtue can become vicious if it is not balanced with all other virtues. Generosity, as charity, can quickly act viciously to one's own well-being such that it compromises your ability to approach all other forms of virtue, hence, the Golden Mean. The picture this creates is like a kind of dynamic stability, where one cannot perfect any virtue individually where he is not effecting the perfection of all other virtues - to consummate one, is to consummate all. Virtue involves skill and intellect. The matter is not simply a case of adhering to arbitrary rule-sets; rather, these are a perfection of habits which are necessary to a person's ability to grow, to adapt, to become more skilled, more attractive...really, more like the ideal human, more like Christ, more like God.

Virtue is what balances the order of nature with the order of grace, or in other words, the animal with the Man.

As an introduction to Catholic ethics, I really enjoy this lecture. Topics covered include the human will, cardinal virtue, the distinction between moral and intellectual virtues, the struggle with passions, and also the Golden Mean. In particular, pay attention to the segment that begins shortly after the half-hour mark. Any virtue can become vicious if it is not balanced with all other virtues. Generosity, as charity, can quickly act viciously to one's own well-being such that it compromises your ability to approach all other forms of virtue, hence, the Golden Mean. The picture this creates is like a kind of dynamic stability, where one cannot perfect any virtue individually where he is not effecting the perfection of all other virtues - to consummate one, is to consummate all. Virtue involves skill and intellect. The matter is not simply a case of adhering to arbitrary rule-sets; rather, these are a perfection of habits which are necessary to a person's ability to grow, to adapt, to become more skilled, more attractive...really, more like the ideal human, more like Christ, more like God. Virtue is what balances the order of nature with the order of grace, or in other words, the animal with the Man.

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[–] • 0 pt

I wouldn't try to deny you your skepticism of the modern Church.

We should be a bit careful, though, not to dismiss wisdom that is 2,300 years old in a sort of toss-the-baby-out move.

There is a philosophy to be distinguished here from the actual failings of the Church as an institution consisting of many fallible persons. I was more interested to deal with the ethics philosophically, as opposed to doing a forensic analysis of whether the modern church has 'walked the walk'. If they haven't (and most of us don't think they have), the latter does not negate the former, although I'd admit: it's a bad look, and it's fairly tragic that the Church itself is doing more to obfuscate its own ancient message than any other cultural force attacking it from without.

@PS @ARM

[–] • 0 pt

and it's fairly tragic that the Church itself is doing more to obfuscate its own ancient message than any other cultural force attacking it from without.

This was necessary, since all attempts to weaken the Church from without only made it stronger. "Built on the blood of the martyrs" etc. Just as Christ was only crucified through the betrayal of Judas, so too was it necessary that the Church be infiltrated and attacked from within in order to force her into her own Passion.

@ARM