The concept of seven virtues predates Christianity and can be found in Bushido, Confucianism, and Buddhism. St. Paul listed love, faith, and hope as theological virtues, while the cardinal virtues are attention, justice, moderation, and courage. European knights also had similar codes of conduct.
While the concept of seven virtues is associated with Christianity, they actually predate it by several centuries. Most credit the philosopher Plato with listing some of them. It should be noted that the idea of defining ways of being virtuous is not limited to Christianity: in the Bushido, the code followed by the Japanese Samurai, a set of seven virtues is also described, although these differ from the traditional Christian lists. Theologians and theorists may define virtues differently and have undergone some changes.
Some of the first virtues described are reported in the writings of St. Paul, who says that the greatest of these virtues is love. The other virtues that St. Paul lists are called theological and are faith and hope. The remaining four virtues listed are usually called the cardinal virtues, and philosophers such as St. Augustine and Thomas Aquinas have developed definitive lists.
The cardinal virtues are:
Attention
justice
moderation
Courage or Fortitude: Strength to endure difficult things or to be courageous in the face of obstacles.
As mentioned, the theological virtues are:
Wedding ring
to hope
Love or Charity: Love and charity are often considered together and generally mean acting selflessly with love for others.
Another list of seven virtues was developed as a counterweight to the seven deadly sins, which are lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, and pride. Respectively, counterbalancing qualities that Christians should possess are: chastity, temperance, charity, diligence, patience, kindness, and humility. When people leaned towards achieving and exhibiting these qualities, they could hope to avoid the seven deadly sins.
Sometimes Christians add an eight virtue to one of two lists of virtues: justice. However, some argue that the other virtues would include justice, particularly charity and temperance.
Bushido is translated as “The Way of the Warrior” and was a chivalrous code of conduct followed by Japanese samurai based on theories from Buddhism and Confucianism. In Bushido, the individual must also pursue seven virtues. These are righteousness, courage, benevolence, respect, honesty, loyalty and honor.
Other groups have or had similar codes, including European knights during the medieval period. While lists of virtues varied, some generally included were courage, justice, nobility, mercy, faith, hope, and strength. Of course some virtues listed for knights had more to do with practical skill development. For example, being a good knight might be considered a chivalric virtue.
In philosophy and religion there are other similar ideas. In Confucianism, order is achieved through five right relationships defined as father/son, older brother/younger brother, husband/wife, young to old, and subject/ruler. In Buddhism, the Noble Eightfold Path defines those ways in which a person can free himself from suffering. These are right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration. Essentially the idea of virtues is certainly not unique to Christianity and many philosophies and religions long before it called for followers to act or “be” in a certain way as a means of achieving some sort of salvation or order.
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