THE BENSON LECTURE 2013 Wednesday 6th November at 7.30pm Virtuous Living: Does the Christian faith have anything to offer the search for a sustainable life? Do you ever feel like environmentalism is just one long list of dos and and don’ts? Do separate out your recycling from your rubbish; don’t eat so much meat; do switch to low-energy light bulbs; don’t buy chocolate if it isn’t fairtrade; do turn your thermostat down; don’t fly for your holiday, and so on. In this year’s Benson Lecture, I am going to suggest that there can be a different way of approaching how we live our lives in the light of our environmental crisis, and that has to do with a consideration of the virtues. A virtue ethic approach invites us to consider that, alongside the still-important question of, ‘what should I do?’, is the equally important question of, ‘what sort of person do I want to be?’. There are some key virtues that can help us answer that question: virtues of (for example) humility, frugality, generosity and love. What does humility look like in a world of environmental problems? How can I be a frugal person, a generous person, a loving person…? These are the sorts of questions we will be exploring together on November 6th at 7.30pm They don’t avoid the ‘what should I do?’ question, and we will be touching on that throughout the evening. But I hope that a look at the virtues will give us a fresh way to consider how we can live well in our world of wounds.
Posted on: Tue, 05 Nov 2013 12:30:20 +0000
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