Steering Through Chaos: Vice and Virtue in an Age of Moral Confusion
Popular author and seminar leader Os Guinness calls readers in a very concrete way to "... lead an examined life in an unexamining age." Part of the Trinity Forum Study series, this book, intended as a guide for small study groups, offers the classical tradition of the virtues and vices as a framework for a very modern discussion about what kind of individuals and society we are becoming. Rather than contrasting the seven deadly vices (pride, envy, anger, sloth, avarice, lust, gluttony) with their corresponding virtues, Guinness takes an interpretive path less traveled, by contrasting the deadly vices rather with the beatitudes of Jesus from the Sermon on the Mount. Thus, for example, the opposite of envy is mourning (envy being sorrow at another's good, and mourning, sorrow at another's loss). Each chapter focuses on one of the vices and its opposing beatitude, providing excerpts from literature, brief quotations and thought-provoking questions designed to spark discussion and debate. This book is not a great armchair read, nor is it intended to be. It is, however, a well-rendered, intelligent discussion-group guide that provides, in addition to an engaging set of readings and quotations, an opportunityApotluck supper by potluck supperAto enrich a national conversation about the common good and how to achieve it. (Aug.)Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.