Renewing Moral Theology by Daniel A. Westberg

Author:Daniel A. Westberg [Westberg, Daniel A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780830897704
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Published: 2015-03-17T00:00:00+00:00

Wisdom (and Will) for Action

At the outset I draw attention to the real standard or “bottom line” measurement of prudence or practical wisdom: right actions. The person who is good at thinking through moral issues, the ethicist who can analyze case studies with helpful insight, the counselor who gives wonderful advice to clients are not examples of the virtue of practical wisdom unless their own lives are following the right pattern. There is often a gap between knowledge and performance, and well-informed and clever people can have blind spots in relationships, be poor at making decisions or at carrying them out at the right time and in the right way. This stage of practical reason, which we call execution, is the most critical and important part of the virtue of prudence or practical wisdom. This is stressed by Thomas Aquinas in the introductory question on what the virtue of prudence actually is:

The activity of reason goes through three stages. The first is taking counsel, which as we have seen, is inquiry in order to discover. The second is forming a judgment on what has been discovered. So far we have not left theory. Practice, however, is another matter. For the practical reason, which is meant for the doing of something, pushes on to a third act, namely of commanding; this consists in bringing into execution what has been thought out and decided on. And because this approaches more closely to what the practical reason is for, it is the chief act of the practical reason, and so of prudence as well. (ST II-II, q. 47, a. 8)

Some very fine Christian philosophers, theologians and communicators have written clearly and persuasively about the true nature of prudence but have neglected to emphasize this point. C. S. Lewis and Herbert McCabe drew attention to the feet-on-the-ground nature of this wisdom, that it is more like “good sense” (McCabe) or “practical common sense” (Lewis), and brought out the feature of good judgment.7 This is a good antidote to the emphasis on knowledge of cases (casuistry) and the intellectual application of principles in moral reasoning. But what Aquinas wants to emphasize even further is that the ability to deliberate well and make discerning judgments about what should be done is only preparatory to action. If you do not carry out in action your brilliant insights and decisions, you lack the virtue of prudence. The coach may have spent hours on analysis and developed a clever game plan, but if in the hustle of the game the coach is distracted and fails to execute it in actual competition, there is a definite lack. Your good intentions, your “to-do lists” and plans for the future, are all very good (and may exhibit a certain insight, practicality and wisdom), but if they are not translated into actions, there is no true virtue of practical wisdom in action/actuality.

Of course, the reason for the gap between good thinking and action, between plan and performance, is often due largely to emotional

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