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The "Cardinal Virtues" | C. S. Lewis · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome to reformed thinking and to the deep dive.
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  This is where we we dig into some sources and try to pull out
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  the key ideas for you. Today we're opening up a
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  discussion that I think really frames morality in a different
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  way. Not just a list of things to do
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  or avoid, but a blueprint for character.
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  We're looking at the cardinal virtues specifically through the
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  eyes of CS Lewis. That's a great way to put it.
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  Yeah. We're pulling from his classic
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  Mere Christianity, the sections on Christian behavior.
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  Right. And Lewis himself said that, you
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  know, his little broadcast talks just weren't enough to really
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  get into morality. You needed a a bigger framework.
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  And this discussion on the Roach use gives us that structure.
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  It's the groundwork for, well, for everyone, not just
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  Christians. So that's our mission today.
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  We're going to try and unpack these 4 virtues, Prudence,
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  Temperance, Justice, and fortitude.
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  And we want to get at why Lewis claims they're more than just,
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  you know, good habits. He argues they actually shape
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  who we are for eternity, which that feels very much at home.
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  And Reformed thought this idea of God using ordinary means,
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  even common sense, to shape us absolutely.
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  So let's start with the big picture.
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  Lewis lays out seven virtues, but he splits them into two
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  groups. Can you break that down for us?
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  Sure, he talks about four cardinal virtues and three
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  theological virtues, and he's very strategic about it.
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  He decides to talk about the theological ones, faith, hope
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  and charity or love later on. Why does he do that?
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  Because those three are, you know, specifically Christian.
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  They're gifts that come through Revelation.
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  He starts with the Cardinal 4. Because they're, well, they're
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  for everybody. They're universal.
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  That's it. Lewis calls them the necessary
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  moral structure. These are things that all
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  civilized people everywhere recognize as good.
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  They're the backbone of a decent society, of a decent individual.
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  Common grace, really. Louis is always so good with the
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  actual meaning of words, the word cardinal itself.
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  He stops to make sure we get it right, doesn't he?
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  He does, and it's a great little detail.
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  He says right away. Look, this has nothing to do
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  with the Roman church. The word comes from the Latin
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  cardo, which means the hinge of a door.
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  A hinge, Yeah. Think about that.
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  Without a good hinge, a door is useless.
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  It just falls off. So these 4 virtues are called
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  cardinal because they're pivotal.
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  They are the hinge points. Everything else in the moral
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  life swings on them. So without these 4, the door to
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  a civilized life, a life that can even receive those later
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  theological virtues, it just can't open.
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  That's the idea. They're the baseline, the
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  building blocks for a well ordered soul.
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  OK, so before we get into each one, let's just list them out
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  for everyone. The four we're going to be
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  looking at, right? They are prudence, temperance,
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  justice and fortitude. And as we'll see, each one
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  tackles a different part of us, our mind, our desires, our
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  relationships, and our will and. Let's start where Lewis does.
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  Then with prudence, he defines it as just practical common
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  sense, taking the time to think about what you're doing and
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  what's likely to happen because of it.
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  It sounds like thinking hard is a moral duty.
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  It is, and that's Lewis's first big point.
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  He says most people today barely even think of prudence as a
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  virtue at all. We sort of mix up being good
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  with being simple. There's this idea floating
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  around even in some Christian circles that if your heart is in
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  the right place, it doesn't matter if you're a bit foolish.
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  That comes from the whole Be Like Children teaching.
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  I think it. Does it's a total
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  misunderstanding of it? OK, so this is where it gets
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  interesting for me. If the gospels for the simple
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  and we're supposed to have a childlike faith, isn't Lewis
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  putting a huge emphasis on intelligence here?
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  I mean, what about people who just aren't as smart naturally?
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  That's the key question, and Lewis sees it coming.
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  He's really careful to separate intellectual ability from
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  intellectual effort. OK, God isn't asking for a
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  certain IQ score. He's asking us to use the brain
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  we actually have, and Lewis pushes back hard on that
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  misunderstanding of Christ's teaching, and he uses Saint Paul
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  to do it. So how does he resolve that
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  paradox? The child's heart, but the
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  adult's mind. He makes 2 points.
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  First he says look at actual children when they're really
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  into something like building a Lego castle or whatever, they
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  show amazing prudence. They think it through, so it's
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  not like it's unnatural. Good point.
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  But the second point is the big one.
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  He brings in Saint Paul to show that Christ never meant for us
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  to stay children in our thinking.
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  The command is to be harmless as doves, yes, but also wise as
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  serpents. Beth, both.
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  God wants a child's heart, you know, teachable, loving,
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  straightforward. But he absolutely demands a
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  grown up's head, a mind that sharp, alert and, as Lewis puts
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  it in first class fighting trim. That dual command, the pure
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  heart and the sharp mind. That stops us from using
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  simplicity as an excuse for being reckless, doesn't it?
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  It forces piety and intellectual work to come together.
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  Yes. A lot of our moral failures,
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  Lewis says, come from a failure of prudence.
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  We do something stupid and then we blame it on bad luck when
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  really we were just too lazy to think it through.
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  Can you give us one of his examples how this applies to
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  something that seems obviously good?
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  Sure, he talks about giving to charity a good thing to do,
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  right? Of course.
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  But Prudence says your duty doesn't end with writing the
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  check. You have to use your brain.
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  Is this charity a fraud? Does it actually do what it says
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  it does? If you don't do that work, your
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  good intention might actually be funding something harmful.
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  Good intentions aren't enough. And he applies this to our
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  spiritual lives too, to how we think about God.
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  Oh absolutely. This is so critical for us in
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  the reformed tradition. Just because you're praying or
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  thinking about theology doesn't mean you get to be lazy with
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  your mind. You can't just be content with
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  the same childish ideas about God you had when you were 5.
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  South, using our intellect is a form of worship, in a way.
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  It's a moral duty, and Lewis is blunt about it.
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  He says God is no fonder of intellectual slackers than of
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  any other kind of slacker. That's a strong statement
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  because our culture often praises acting from the heart,
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  from emotion, right? Being too rational as seen as
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  cold, Lewis seems to be calling intellectual laziness a sin.
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  He is because it's a matter of stewardship.
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  He says God has room for the person with a, you know, a
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  second rate brain, but he expects everyone to use what
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  they've got. If you have a 2 talent mind, God
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  wants 2 talents worth of thoughtful living.
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  If you have 5, he wants 5. The sin isn't having less
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  ability, it's choosing not to use what you have.
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  So that old saying, be good sweet maid and let who can be
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  clever? Lewis would throw that out.
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  Completely, he says the motto should be more like be good,
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  sweet maid. And don't forget that this means
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  being as clever as you can. Goodness requires intelligence.
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  To become a Christian is to give God the whole of you, brains and
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  all. And he argues this isn't just a
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  burden, it actually makes you smarter.
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  Yes, that's the encouragement, he says.
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  If you're honestly trying to live the Christian life, you'll
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  find your intelligence gets sharpened.
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  Christianity itself is an education.
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  All the wrestling with Scripture, trying to apply
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  wisdom to a messy world, it forces your mind into that first
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  class fighting trim. He gives the example of John
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  Bunyan, doesn't he? He does an uneducated tinker,
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  but by applying his mind so rigorously to his faith, he
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  writes this incredible, lasting book, Pilgrim's Progress.
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  The process of sanctification itself develops prudence.
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  So for all of us listening when we're trying to figure out our
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  finances or a career move or even how to engage with some hot
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  button issue, prudence demands we stop coasting on feelings and
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  actually do the hard work of thinking.
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  It takes guts to think clearly, because sometimes it means
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  admitting you were wrong. And that's why prudence needs
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  fortitude, which we'll get to. But it all starts here.
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  We have to think right before we can act right.
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  OK, so from the intellect, let's move to the will and our
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  appetites. Let's talk about temperance.
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  And like you said before, this word, its meaning has really
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  shrunk over time. It really has.
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  Today, when you say temperance, most people just hear
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  teetotalism. Don't drink alcohol.
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  Yeah. And Lewis says this is a huge
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  problem because the original meaning, the second cardinal
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  virtue, wasn't just about drink. It was about all pleasures.
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  All pleasures. All of them.
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  The virtue means simply going the right length and no further
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  knowing when to stop, whether it's food, TV, work, hobbies,
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  anything. It's self-control in the big
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  sense. So Lewis makes it clear that
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  Christianity isn't a religion that bans alcohol outright.
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  But he does say there are good reasons why a Christian might
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  choose to abstain completely. Right.
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  He lays out three good reasons, and the key thing is that none
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  of them involve saying the thing itself is evil.
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  OK, what's the first one? The first is purely personal.
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  You abstain if you know that for you personally, you can't have a
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  little without having way too much.
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  If one glass of wine always leads to a bottle, well then for
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  you the prudent and temperate thing to do is to not have that
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  first glass. So that's about self knowledge,
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  not a universal rule. Exactly.
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  The second reason is about charity.
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  You might give up a pleasure so you can give the money you'd
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  have spent to the poor. A higher good takes priority.
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  Makes sense. And the third reason is also
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  about charity, but for the people around you.
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  You might not drink when you're with a friend who struggles with
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  alcohol just so you don't make it harder for them not causing a
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  brother to stumble. And the common thread in all
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  those is what? The threat is that you're giving
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  something up for a good reason, discipline or love, But you're
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  not condemning the thing itself. You're happy to see other people
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  enjoy it responsibly. It's a personal discipline, not
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  a universal judgement. And this is where Lewis gives
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  that really sharp warning about when self denial becomes
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  something ugly. This is such a critical point,
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  he warns about that person who because they have to give
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  something up, they suddenly want everyone else to give it up too.
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  Right. If I can't have it, nobody can.
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  That impulse is so dangerous, Lewis says.
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  The moment you start saying oh, movies are evil or beer is evil,
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  and you start looking down on people who enjoy those things,
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  you've taken the wrong turning. You've gone from Temperance to
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  legalism. That's the turn from internal
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  self-control to external judgement and pride.
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  And that's why the shrinking of the word temperance is so bad.
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  It lets us off the hook. A guy might not drink, but he
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  can be completely intemperate about 100 other things.
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  And Lewis's definition forces us to look at those other things.
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  What were his examples? Golf and motorcycles.
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  Yeah, a man making his golf game the center of his life, or a
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  woman who's obsessed with her clothes or her dog.
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  We can update those easily, can't we?
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  Oh for sure. Think about our phones.
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  A person might never touch alcohol, but they spend 6 hours
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  a day scrolling social media. That's intemperance.
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  It's a disordered love for a small pleasure that's crowding
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  out everything else. Or even something that looks
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  good, like fitness. Being healthy is great, but if
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  it becomes an obsession that makes you neglect your family or
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  your spiritual life, that's intemperance.
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  The pursuit of one good thing has made you lose control of
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  your life as a whole. And those modern forms are
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  sneaky. Like Louis said, being obsessed
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  with golf doesn't make you fall down on the street like being
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  drunk does. It's socially acceptable.
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  It's praised even. He's so dedicated.
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  But Louis reminds us God isn't fooled by how things look on the
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  outside. He sees the heart.
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  He sees the disordered desire, the thing that has taken his
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  place at the center. So if prudence is the mind
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  planning the right path, temperance is the will keeping
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  our desires in check so we can actually stay on that pass.
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  They have to work together. Temperance is that inner voice
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  that says OK that's good, but that's enough for now.
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  It takes constant self-awareness.
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  OK, let's move on to the last two, which are more about how we
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  relate to the world outside ourselves.
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  Let's start with justice again. Lewis wants a much bigger
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  definition than just courts and laws.
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  Much bigger for Lewis, drawing on the ancient meaning, justice
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  is simply the old word for what we would call fairness.
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  And why is fairness so pivotal? Because without it, society just
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  falls apart. All our relationships depend on
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  it. He says justice includes things
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  like honesty. Not just avoiding lies, but
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  being truthful. It includes give and take,
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  recognizing other people's needs, and a big one, keeping
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  promises. We don't often think of keeping
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  a promise as an act of justice, do we?
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  It feels more like just being nice.
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  But Lewis puts it right at the center of justice.
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  Because when you make a promise, you create a debt.
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  You owe that person what you said you'd do.
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  Breaking a promise is a kind of theft.
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  You're stealing the security or the help that you led them to
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  expect. That applies to everything from
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  a big contract to just telling your kid you'll play with them
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  after dinner. Absolutely.
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  The fabric of trust is woven from kept promises, big and
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  small, and if that personal commitment to fairness isn't
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  there in each of us, no amount of laws or policies can create a
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  truly just society. It has to start with us and
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  that. Leads to the last one,
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  fortitude. This feels like the power source
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  for all the others, Lewis says. It has two sides, right?
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  Two kinds of courage. Yeah, he says.
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  Fortitude has two faces. The first is what we usually
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  think of as courage, Active bravery, facing danger, stepping
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  up, confronting a problem. The hero stuff, the.
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  Hero stuff, right? But the second kind is maybe
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  even more common. It's the courage that just
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  stick. Is it under pain or stress?
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  It's endurance, perseverance, the ability to keep going when
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  things are hard or boring or painful for a long, long time,
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  Lewis says. The best modern word for it all
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  is just. Guts having guts, I like that.
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  And that part about endurance is so key, because most of life
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  isn't one big heroic battle, it's a long, slow grind.
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  That's where most moral tests happen, isn't it?
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  It takes active courage to have a hard conversation, sure, but
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  it takes perseverance to keep loving that person day after day
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  when the relationship is strained.
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  Fortitude is what makes sure we finish what we start.
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  So connect it back for us. Why is fortitude the hinge of
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  the hinge? How does it enable the other 3?
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  Well, Lewis's big insight here is that you can't really
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  practice any of the other virtues for long without
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  fortitude. It's the fuel.
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  Take prudence, thinking clearly. What if the truth you discover
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  is really uncomfortable? What if it means you have to
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  change your life in a painful way?
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  It takes fortitude, guts to face that truth and not run away.
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  And Temperance saying no to a pleasure that's screaming your
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  name. That takes guts.
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  It's the courage to endure the little discomfort of self denial
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  for a greater good. And justice often means taking a
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  personal loss to be fair to someone else.
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  Constantly. It takes fortitude to keep a
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  promise when it becomes inconvenient.
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  It takes duts to be honest when a lie would be easier.
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  Without guts, prudence just becomes anxiety.
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  Temperance is just a nice idea, and justice is only for when
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  it's easy. Fortitude is what makes them
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  real. OK, we've laid out the four
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  hinges. Now we get to what I think is
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  the most critical part of this whole discussion, where Lewis
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  shifts from what we do to who we are, the difference between
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  doing a good act and being a good person.
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  This is the whole point really. It stops Christianity from being
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  just a moral checklist. Lewis is arguing that the
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  actions are a means to an end and the end is the kind of
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  person you become. His analogy of the tennis player
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  is just perfect for explaining this.
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  Yeah, let's walk through that. What's the difference between a
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  good shot and a good player? OK, so a really bad tennis
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  player. By pure luck, they might hit one
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  amazing shot, a perfect ace, but that one good action doesn't
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  make them a good player. A good player is someone whose
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  whole body, their eyes, their muscles, their nerves, has been
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  trained by thousands and thousands of practice shots.
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  They have a certain tone or quality that's always there.
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  Their body is ready. That inner readiness, that train
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  the state, that's the virtue in tennis, so.
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  If I do 1 prudent thing, that's a prudent action.
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  But if I practice thinking clearly over and over, I become
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  a prudent person. That's it, exactly.
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  The person who keeps on doing just and temperate and
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  courageous things day in and day out eventually build a quality
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  into their character. And Lewis says that quality,
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  that reliable Interstate, is what virtue really is.
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  It's the shape of your soul. And he says it's distinction is
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  so important because without it we fall into three big mistakes.
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  What was the 1st? One, the first mistake is
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  thinking that your motivation doesn't matter if you only look
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  at the outward action. You can say, who cares why you
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  did it? You did the right thing.
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  That's all that counts. But Lewis says the why is
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  everything. Because the why is what trains
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  the inner person. A right action done for the
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  wrong reason doesn't build virtue, it just builds something
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  else. Back to the tennis player, if he
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  hits a great shot only because he flew into a rage and smashed
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  the ball, well, he won the point.
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  But he didn't train himself to be a calm, reliable player.
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  He just trained his anger. If you give to charity just to
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  get praise, you're not training charity in your heart, you're
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  training vanity. The motive is what shapes the
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  character. Which leads right into the
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  second mistake. Yeah, thinking God just wants us
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  to follow the rules. Yeah, the cosmic rule setter
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  idea, Lewis says. This is just totally wrong.
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  God isn't after blind obedience to a list.
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  He wants people of a particular sort.
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  He's trying to create a specific kind of character.
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  The rules are like the workout plan.
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  The goal isn't just to do the exercises.
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  The goal is to get strong. The process of refinement.
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  Yes, and that brings up the third mistake, which is about
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  eternity. Someone could say, well, why
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  bother becoming brave if there's no danger in heaven?
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  Why practice temperance if there are no bad pleasures there?
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  And Lewis's answer here is one of his most powerful points.
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  He says you're right, there might not be any occasion to
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  perform a courageous act in the next World, but there will be
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  every occasion for being the sort of person you only become
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  by doing those acts here. So the quality you build is
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  permanent, even if the activity that built it was temporary.
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  Exactly, the act of courage might be for this life, but the
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  character of the courageous person, that honest, steady,
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  self controlled soul, that's what you take with you.
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  It reframes everything we do. We're not just getting through
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  the day, we're actively shaping our eternal selves.
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  And he connects this directly to what heaven even is.
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  It's not about God as a bouncer at the door checking your virtue
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  ID. No, it's about compatibility.
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  His point is that if a person hasn't started to build these
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  qualities inside themselves, then no possible external
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  conditions could make a heaven for them.
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  Wow, so heaven isn't just a nice place, it's a state that
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  requires a certain kind of person to even experience it as
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  good. That's it, Lewis says.
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  Heaven is that deep, strong, unshakable happiness that God
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  designed for us. But you can only experience that
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  happiness if your soul has been trained to be able to handle it.
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  An unjust soul couldn't enjoy perfect community.
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  An intemperate soul would be miserable with pure pleasures.
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  A cowardly soul couldn't bear the weight of glory.
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  Our moral life here is God getting us ready for joy.
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  That brings it all together so well.
• 18:44
  The four virtues, prudence, temperance, justice, and
• 18:47
  fortitude, are just rules. They're the training program for
• 18:50
  building a soul that can actually enjoy God forever.
• 18:52
  The goal is always that internal disposition, that reliable
• 18:55
  character, and it's a program that requires our whole person,
• 18:58
  our will, our emotions, and, as Lewis starts with, our brains,
• 19:02
  which. Takes us right back to prudence.
• 19:04
  Lewis really challenges us with that idea that God is not fond
• 19:08
  of intellectual slackers. So here's a thought to end with
• 19:12
  If the whole point of this is to build an eternal character, how
• 19:15
  much of your daily moral effort is just about managing behavior,
• 19:19
  just trying to hit a lucky shot now and then?
• 19:21
  And how much is truly about training that inner person, that
• 19:24
  reliable player that lasts forever?
• 19:26
  A good question to think on. Thanks for joining us for this
• 19:29
  deep dive. We'll catch you next time.