The following is an excerpt from an essay written by the Rev. Jay Thomas and recently published as part of The Living Church’s student essay contest. A senior at Nashotah House, Thomas was formerly a Nuclear Surface Warfare Officer in the Navy and now serves as a Chaplain Candidate in the Naval Reserve and Transitional Deacon in the Jurisdiction of the Armed Forces and Chaplaincy.

By The Rev. Jay B. Thomas

The eschatological status of non-Christians and their ability to interact with or participate in the “abundant life” (cf. John 10:10) of Christ is a perennially vexing question in Christian theology; the situation of those who lived before Christ or who have never heard the explicit gospel message is particularly so. Although the salvific implications of this question are outside the scope of this article, the problem remains present within moral and ethical realms. Since “every good and perfect gift is from [God]” (James 1:17), then any goodness, truth, or beauty within the world ought to be ascribed to God. However, as Paul teaches, those who do not know God (vis-à-vis the gospel proclamation) are not morally neutral  — quite the opposite actually — because “the wrath of God is revealed…against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them” (Rom. 1:18-9). For most of us, though, this seems to push against our sensibilities. Living in a pluralistic environment, we interact with coworkers, friends, and relatives who, although not Christian, live apparently virtuous lives. In fact, we can probably name more than a few who seem to live better and more abundant lives than ourselves! This all seems to beg the question of whether a holistic virtue ethic can exist apart from the unique Christian revelation and the theological virtues. In a technical sense: can a pagan be truly virtuous?

At the root of this question is an underlying discussion about what constitutes a virtuous person. The Christian tradition has largely adopted the language of classical (and thereby, pagan) philosophers to lay the foundation of its virtue-ethic tradition. At the risk of stating the obvious, this borrowing within the classical tradition is what instigates this question in the first place. If the very root of our tradition of virtue is not of a Judeo-Christian origin, then how could we possibly claim that a pagan cannot be virtuous?

The four virtues that come from the pagan traditions are what we now call cardinal virtues: prudence, courage, temperance, and justice. Besides being simply ancient virtues that have stood the test of time — like valued relics in a museum lobby — as Jean Porter comments, these virtues are “perennial, yet always timely.”[1] Although Porter will go on to cast doubt about the perennial status of justice, its timelessness as a classical virtue is unquestioned by most.

To these cardinal virtues, the Christian tradition adds what are termed the theological virtues: “faith, hope, and love.”[2] From a biblical perspective, these virtues are the three things that will abide even unto the eschaton. Therefore, from a temporal context, they precede, and will ultimately outlast, the cardinal virtues. But the theological virtues do not stand in opposition to the cardinal; rather, they are mutually complementary. The cardinal virtues, you might say, are part of a secular framework that — similar to natural revelation — is available to all people, at all times, and in all places; the theological virtues are infused by the Holy Spirit through grace.[3] From a Christian perspective, therefore, the truly virtuous person is one whose life is governed by the naturally attainable cardinal virtues and graced by the infused theological virtues.

However, because the theological virtues can only be attained by the grace of God, we go back to our presenting issue: are “virtuous” pagans even a technical possibility? Can you be truly virtuous without the theological virtues? And if not, can you obtain the theological virtues as a pagan? In The City of God, Augustine contends that “the virtues which [an individual] seems to itself possess, and by which [that individual] restrains the body and the vices that [they] may obtain and keep what [they] desire, are rather vices than virtues so long as there is no reference to God in the matter” (XIX.25). Augustine seems to be working from a reading of the first chapter of Romans which holds that, due to natural revelation, fallen humanity is able to grasp at — and even potentially attain to — these naturally revealed virtues. And yet, because we are blinded by our own righteousness, we will never refer these virtues to God; in essence these virtues become merely “splendid vices.”[4]

However, I contend that Augustine’s framework in understanding the virtues in this way is fundamentally misconstrued. Augustine’s reading misses what Paul appears to allude to in his sermon in the Areopagus. In addressing the very Greeks who coined the cardinal virtues, Paul comments that God “made from one man every nation of mankind … that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him” (Acts 17:26-7). In the possibility of these pagans finding God, I think we can hear his overtones of subtly affirming the classical virtue systems. However, since we can only truly find God through his own revelation to us, I think we have to ask the question, then, of whether this “finding God” is an attainment or culmination of the cardinal virtues, or if it is the infusion of theological virtues even in a pre-Christ dispensation.

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[1] Jean Porter, “Perennial and Timely Virtues,” Concilium: Revue Internationale de Theologie, No. 191 (June 1987), 61.

[2] Daniel Westberg, Renewing Moral Theology: Christian Ethics as Action, Character and Grace (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2015), 156.

[3] William C. Mattison, Introducing Moral Theology: True Happiness and the Virtues. (Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2008), 313.

[4] A phrase commonly attributed to Augustine because of his aforementioned quote in The City of God. Cf. Westberg, Renewing Moral Theology, 153.