Category Archives: Ethics

February 6, 2013

Alain De Botton’s Borrowed Virtues

By Tim Hein
alain-de-botton

Pop philosopher Alain De Botton

Yesterday popular philosopher Alain De Botton released his ‘Manifesto for Atheists’, a supposed ten new virtues, in response to his feeling that being virtuous had become “ a strange and depressing notion”.

He says he hopes it “ignites a vital conversation around moral character to increase public interest in becoming more virtuous and connected as a society”.

An admirable aim.

I’ve found De Botton’s work interesting in the past, as so was genuinely intrigued to see what virtues he’s come up with.

Unfortunately (or maybe not) they’re not so much ten new virtues for atheists, as they are ten old virtues from Christianity.

Ironically for an Atheist Manifesto, De Botton has chosen a cluster of virtues which are rooted in the Judeo/Christian tradition.

I want to ask him from what (apparently atheistic) source does he believe these virtues originated?

Are they just his handy hints? Where do they come from?

Christianity understands virtues as attributes grounded in the objective goodness of God. De Botton’s list of ideal virtues for a secular society are part-and-parcel teachings of Christianity.

In many cases, such as the virtue of humility (which is strangely absent from De Botton’s list) its foundation in the teaching of Jesus actually changed the tone of western civilisation (see John Dickson’s excellent book Humilitas).

Unfortunately he has omitted many other Christian virtues, seemingly not as important for the modern atheist, such as humility, love, justice, grace, generosity (esp. to the poor), faithfulness, or servanthood.

Consider this famous passage from St Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians:

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.” 

Of course my point is not that an atheist is not capable of these virtues, just that they have not arisen out of secular, atheistic history. They did not appear in thin air.

I completely agree with his list – it’s just neither complete, nor his.

A further point to ask De Botton is: without a belief in absolute truth, on what objective ethical basis does he ground these particular virtues?

Reading through his list, its amazing how easily verses from the Bible, penned a lazy couple of millennia before De Botton was born, jump to mind.  Of course a single example verse does no justice at all to the overwhelming presence of the virtues unfolded throughout the New Testament.

It is the Christian faith that has so influenced our history, as to present De Botton with such a glorious plethora of choices today.

Of course it must be said that at the core of Christianity itself is the truth that we are ultimately unable to ‘save’ ourselves at all. The truth is that only God can save, and our working or trying to be virtuous ultimately falls short.

We are invited to place our trust in God, whose own virtue – love, grace and forgiveness – enables change within us, the beginning of a virtuous life. Virtue then becomes a free response to God’s grace, rather than just another rulebook, however modern.

Alain De Botton’s 10 Virtues:

1. Resilience. Keeping going even when things are looking dark.

Romans 5: 3 – ‘Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope’

2. Empathy. The capacity to connect imaginatively with the sufferings and unique experiences of another person.

Romans 12: 5 –  ’Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep’

3. Patience. We should grow calmer and more forgiving by getting more realistic about how things actually tend to go.

Ephesians 4: 1-2 – I therefore, as a prisoner, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love..”

4. Sacrifice. We won’t ever manage to raise a family, love someone else or save the planet if we don’t keep up with the art of sacrifice.

 Romans 12:1 – ‘Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice’

5. Politeness. Politeness is very linked to tolerance, the capacity to live alongside people whom one will never agree with, but at the same time, can’t avoid.

Colossians 3:13 – ‘Be tolerant of one another and forgive each other if anyone has a complaint against another’

6. Humour. Like anger, humour springs from disappointment, but it’s disappointment optimally channelled.

Job 8:21 – ‘He will yet fill your mouth with laughter, and your lips with shouting’

7. Self-Awareness. To know oneself is to try not to blame others for one’s troubles and moods; to have a sense of what’s going on inside oneself, and what actually belongs to the world.

Romans 12:3 – ‘For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you’

8. Forgiveness. It’s recognising that living with others isn’t possible without excusing errors.

Matthew 18: 21-22 – ‘Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven’

9. Hope. Pessimism isn’t necessarily deep, nor optimism shallow.

Romans 5: 3 – ‘Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope’

10. Confidence. Confidence isn’t arrogance, it’s based on a constant awareness of how short life is and how little we ultimately lose from risking everything.

This final quote from Jesus himself is worth quoting in full, so brilliant and radical in our age as it is:

Matthew 6: 25 – 34 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?

And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?  And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?  

Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.  

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. 

7 comments | posted in Apologetics, Ethics

June 5, 2012

My Father, Hairdresser of Nazis

By Tim Hein

I’ve been very moved by a recent, very readable, biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

He holds great fascination for me, and personifies a combination of two interests: theology and the Third Reich.

My interest in the first is perhaps explained by my vocation. The second is helped by its linkage with my father’s early life.

Today would have been Dad’s 90th birthday. It’s also the fourth anniversary of his funeral.

He actually had a tiny link to a momentous moment in history:

Geert Hein was born in Holland in 1922, and left school very early to become a hairdresser.

Soon after the outbreak of war he became involved in the black market, bringing cigarettes and other products across the border, making a lot of money.

Once Holland was invaded and surrendered, he was given the option of joining the German Army or being sent to Germany to work. He chose the latter, and managed to make his way south to a small town called Ebingen.

Dad spent the rest of the war there, gaining work as a hairdresser in the main street, and living with a woman, Ellen, whose husband was away in the army, and her little daughter. Her parents lived in the country, and Sunday afternoons they would head out on their bikes to collect extra food.

A very strange relationship.

Amidst the regular bombings, he managed to earn extra money buying cigarettes from German soldiers, exchanging them for perfume in the nearby French prison camps, and using that to befriend and obtain quality food and other rare products from the local girls.

Dad actually spoke of this time as something of a good life as far as they could understand it.

He also spoke of trains heading past, full of prisoners.

Just outside of Ebingen is Stauffenberg Castle, the dwelling of Claus Von Stauffenberg and his family. Stauffenberg was a Colonel in the German Army, but also a Roman Catholic with many misgivings about Hitler’s policies, and treatment of the Jews.

My father became Staffenberg’s hairdresser, and those being the days when men went for a regular shave, Dad knew him quite well.

Towards the end of the war, Stauffenberg became involved in the famous plot to assassinate Hitler, an action planned by a network of resistance which included, among others, Dietrich Bonheoffer – although by then Bonhoeffer himself was already locked in Tebel Prison for suspected undermining of Nazi policy towards Jews.

On 20 July 1944, Stauffenberg secretly carried two bombs in a suitcase into a room near Hitler’s bunker at Wolf’s Lair. He was only able to arm one of the bombs, and with the suitcase kicked under a heavy table, the subsequent explosion managed only to injure Hitler.

The plot uncovered, Stauffenberg along with some 200 other suspected conspirators were hunted down and shot by firing squad. In 2008, the story was made into the film Valkerie, with Stauffenberg played by Tom Cruise.

Col Claus Von Stauffenberg

It’s a fascinating little link to such a huge moment in history. I asked Dad about it many times, and though he was reluctant to talk about the war, he shared many personal things.

Dad had made a personal confession of faith just prior to the war at a Salvation Army church. But while in Ebingen he attended weekly Mass with his Catholic girlfriend, the same church attended by Stauffenberg and his family, where the Colonel’s deep morality and sense of justice had been cultivated.

The complexity of life, faith and ethics – especially in war – is exemplified in this tale.

My father, living a somewhat serene and comfortable exile, doing quite well, in love, shaving a Nazi customer who is now recognised globally for his brave attempt to end Hitler’s tyranny.

And all around, the most horrendous acts of inhumanity were occurring on battlefields and camps across Europe.

We often forget Hitler came to power with enormous popularity. We might remember that when we reflect on the complacency of so many, including many churches who were appeased.

And yet it was Christians such as Bonhoeffer, Stauffenberg and others who were willing to stand against the tidal wave in their own nation. What is good and right is often profoundly unpopular. And Christianity itself will draw attempts to be both appeased and dismissed by popular opinion.

Dad carried deep regrets about his early life. He found it difficult to reconcile the complexity of life and it’s circumstances.

Interestingly, in his later life, Dad was someone who often just couldn’t go with the flow. Many people openly wrote it off as him just ‘being Dutch’, and surely he was a strong personality. But he had seen the reality of war up close. I think Dad knew human nature.

It took decades for him to wrestle with some issues. I remember often walking into his office at home as a child and finding him on his knees, with the Bible open in front of him, crying as he prayed.

He knew he had darkness. He was well aware of his brokenness, though was not very articulate about it. He knew he needed grace.

He had lived a life with much complexity. Dad needed a real gospel, from a real Jesus Christ, and found great redemption there.

The Father I knew was a man profoundly strident in his faith in God and desire to proclaim it to everyone. He knew how reliant we are on that grace for everything, prompting honesty before God.

I strongly recommend the biography of Bonhoeffer for a full account of this whole moment in history. And for a full reminder about the ways, large and small, resistance and goodness are often profoundly unpopular and costly – but not as costly as the alternative.

4 comments   |  tags: , , , , , | posted in Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Ethics

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