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Acting From Virtue
In the end, both virtues and vices are habits that can eventually become “natural” to us. Philosophers describe the perfect achievement of virtue as yielding internal harmony and integrity. Compare, for example, the following two married persons: The first, let’s call Jane. Although she resists them, Jane regularly struggles with sexual feelings for men other… Continue reading
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Virtue
To judge kata ton orthon logon is indeed to judge of more or less and Aristotle tries to use the notion of a mean between the more and the less to give a general characterization of the virtues: courage lies between rashness and timidity, justice between doing injustice and suffering injustice, liberality between prodigality and meanness. For… Continue reading
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Review: Preston Sprinkle’s Does The Bible Support Same-Sex Marriage
As a theology teacher specializing in ethics, I am always on the lookout for books that foster thoughtful and respectful discussions on complex topics. Dr. Preston Sprinkle’s Does the Bible Support Same-Sex Marriage? is a remarkable work that artfully addresses the contentious issue of same-sex marriage through 21 engaging conversations. This book stands out for… Continue reading
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My Approach to Politics
Summary: “The business of a conservatism with integrity is not to impose an idealistic ideological narrative on reality but rather to try to see the world as it is and respond to its challenges within the limits of what we know about human nature.” -Rod Dreher * * * It has been a long time… Continue reading
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Benedictine Spirituality: Work, Prayer, and Study
Back in late September I went on a three-day retreat to St. Gregory’s Abbey in Michigan. St. Gregory’s is a Benedictine community of male vowed religious from within the Episcopal Church. There are currently seven monks living in the community, and of the seven four are priests. I went on this retreat with a lot… Continue reading
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Literature as a Mode of Knowledge
During the last three weeks of July I had the marvelous opportunity to participate in a program at the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture. This program is for K-12 teachers and its purpose to get teachers reading the Classics, writing about them, hearing lectures, and discussing them with each other in seminar. This summer… Continue reading
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The Practice of Simplicity
In just a few short weeks I will be on summer break. Hands down, one of my favorite things about being a teacher is the time off. I will have twelve weeks this summer that I can dedicate to time with family, friends, and my own personal pursuits. Last summer, only nine days before we… Continue reading
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How Rote Worship and Ritualistic Prayer Saved my Faith
A common attitude that I encounter in the low-church Evangelical subculture in which I am immersed is that real prayer or worship requires an authenticity rooted in coming to God “just as we are.” This is usually defined in opposition to more ritualistic prayer/worship praxes which are simply “dead religion.” Tellingly, it is not uncommon… Continue reading
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Lent 2017
We are getting close to the beginning of Lent (Ash Wednesday is just around the corner on March 1). Lent is a big time of the year for me. Liturgically, I don’t like it as much as Advent. I prefer the hopefulness and longing of Advent to the repentance and asceticism of Lent. I prefer… Continue reading
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The Virtuous Life: Benedictine Spirituality
Every few weeks or so I find myself chanting Vespers with an eclectic group (mostly mainline Protestants, but also a Catholic or two) of Christians. After we chant the evening office, we practice lectio divina, have a discussion of the Scriptures and a spiritual formation text, and then return to the oratory to chant Compline… Continue reading
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Great Books vs Technocracy and Academics
The biggest difference that I see between the kind of education I received and the kind of education my students are receiving is located in the telos toward which each system of education is ordered. The kind of education I received was ordered toward me having success in college or in the workforce; it was… Continue reading
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The Virtuous Life: Education
Socrates: Education is not what the professions of certain men assert it to be. They presumably assert that they put into the soul knowledge that isn’t in it, as though they were putting sight into the blind. Glaucon: Yes, they do indeed assert that. Socrates: But the present argument, on the other hand indicates that… Continue reading
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Spring Cleaning my Heart: Ditching my Smartphone for the Sanctified Life
We are about the enter the fourth week of Easter (I’ve taken to seeing time liturgically rather than secularly; it helps with my spiritual condition) and I am already tired of the alleluias. I’ve probably said this before, but I feel way more comfortable with Advent than Christmas, with Lent than Easter. I just think… Continue reading
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Christian Marriage: Difference and Mutuality
This past week, my students and I began working our way through Merchant of Venice. In order to give my students a grid for reading the play, we spent a couple of class periods working our way through Louise Cowan’s conception of the genre of Comedy. In order to get to Comedy, however, I needed… Continue reading
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The Virtuous Life Part 3: Gentillesse
Gentillesse is a concept in Middle English that is usually translated as “nobility.” In Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, for example, Theseus (in “The Knight’s Tale”), the knight (in “The Wife of Bath’s Tale”), and various characters involved in a love triangle (in “The Franklin’s Tale”) all exhibit some form of gentillesse. Perhaps the medievalists among us… Continue reading
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Modifying my Habits in 2016
New Year’s Day is probably the holiday that I celebrate the least. I don’t celebrate Halloween really, but I usually do get a pumpkin. But New Year’s, especially this year when it fell on a Friday, just sort of rolled into my weekend. I think one reason I don’t really care about New Year’s is… Continue reading
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Why I am not a Roman Catholic
***REVISED MAY 2021*** Part 1: Narrative I’ve been asked at least a few times in recent years why I’m not a Roman Catholic. The question usually follows me explaining my embrace of Catholic natural law ideas about sexuality or after I recount my personal spiritual practices (praying the canonical hours, making use of icons and candles, crossing… Continue reading
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Sloth
[Sloth] rob[s] us of our appetite for God, our zest for God, our interest and enjoyment in God. Sloth stops is from seeking God, and that means we do not find him. . . . It may seem strange to define a mortal sin as a kind of sorrow, for sorrow is in itself only… Continue reading
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The Christian Ethic
According to the theological liberal, th[e] [S]ermon [on the Mount] is the essence of Christianity, and Christ is the best of human teachers and examples. But he is not divine, for his function is only a human one, to teach and exemplify ethics. Christianity is essentially ethics. What’s missing here? Simply, the essence of Christianity,… Continue reading
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The Virtuous Life: Psalm 1
Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or take the path that sinners tread, or sit in the seat of scoffers; The natural consequence of sin is death. Not death in the physical or spiritual senses (though, yes, ultimately), but the death of the passions, the further marring of image… Continue reading
About Me
Gregory C. Jeffers
Anglican Christian | Husband | Father | Teacher | Scholar | Poet
G. C. Jeffers 