Virtues Abounding - Paperback

by Mark Osb O'Keefe (Author)

Living a morally good life today is a challenge. But we become fully and authentically human precisely by the decisions we make every day--some of them relatively simple, others complex and difficult. Once a choice is made, we still must claim the moral resolve and strength of character to implement it. Virtues are precisely the sustained habits that help us maneuver life's many choices and to become the good people that we want to be. St. Thomas Aquinas offers the classic Christian presentation of the four principal virtues of prudence, justice, courage, and temperance. But these are precisely cardinal or "hinge" virtues that provide the foundational framework for Aquinas's much broader presentation of a multitude of other virtues. Neglect of this larger array of moral attitudes for good living would miss the breadth of Aquinas's insights into a human life truly well-lived. Virtues Abounding explores, in contemporary language, the practical insights that Aquinas offers for the moral life today. Whether in university, seminary, or adult faith formation settings--whether for a deeper intellectual understanding of virtues or for personal reflection and growth--Virtues Abounding will provide new insight into a classic but too often overlooked storehouse of moral riches.

Author Biography

Mark O'Keefe, OSB is Professor of Moral Theology at Saint Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology in Indiana. Among his books are Becoming Good, Becoming Holy: On the Relationship of Christian Ethics and Spirituality (1995) and most recently Love Awakened by Love: The Liberating Ascent of St. John of the Cross (2014) and The Way of Transformation: St. Teresa of Avila on the Foundation and Fruit of Prayer (2016).