Friday 25 January 2019

Doubt, protest and empathy

The three Christian theological virtues were faith, hope and charity. In addition to the four classical virtues of wisdom, courage, temperance and justice, these three came together to form the seven virtues of the Christian world.

In the twenty-first century, I think faith is less of a virtue than it earlier was when religion had greater significance for a larger section of the population. On the contrary, what improves the world is technological innovation, which in itself is fuelled by doubt.

One of the other factors which improves humankind is acquiring rights, which is rarely gifted but has to be demanded and seized from the powers that be. The protests manifesting the demand are carried out in hope, hope that the demands will be met. Thus, hope in the form of protest remains one of the forms of human progress.

Charity (Latin caritas = love) was the greatest of the Christian theological virtues. I think it remains the greatest virtue even now. In order to love or even be charitable (in the modern sense of donating), one needs to empathise, imagine oneself in the place of another.

Thus, I think the three modern virtues which propel the human race forward are doubt, protest and empathy.

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