Providing resources for assisting like-minded fathers in understanding and performing their God-given responsibilities in fatherhood


Thursday, February 28, 2008

Bible.org: Virtues Leading to Christlikeness

I've been fascinated with the concept of virtue for awhile and have done a bit of research around it as I have worked on a "Virtues Game" for my kids. I'll try to share some of the resources I've discovered in the future, but for now here is an article that helps frame the discussion of virtues in Christian terms (since it is not intrinsically a Christian distinctive).

Many of the Greeks including Aristotle and the Stoics argued that moral virtue was developed according to human achievement and that the goal in mind was personal happiness. Others argued that moral virtue was inherent, the natural disposition of the soul. But both of these ideas, while sharing some similarities with Christianity, are in fact at odds with Christianity’s essential ethical orientation. The “virtues” which the NT espouses have God’s character as their source, the Spirit as their efficient cause in the believer, Christ as their model, and love as their goal.

This article is pretty theological in nature with lots of Bible references so it might be worth printing out and reading during your normal study time rather than a quick web read.

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