James K.A. Smith & Virtues

/ Mark Shaw

Introduction

While working on my master’s thesis, “James K.A. Smith and Virtues: An Analysis and Evaluation“, it became clear to me that there had not been much published or even posted on the topic of James K.A. Smith and virtues. In fact, the thesis, for all its faults, at least contains some of the earliest written discussions of particular virtue passages in Smith’s growing corpus. I’m not going to repeat everything here that is in the thesis (which you probably shouldn’t read in its entirety), but I have made some use of it for writing this post.

James K.A. Smith, for those of you who don’t know, is a Christian philosopher and the author of many books and articles, who was born in 1970 in Canada and now teaches at Calvin University in Grand Rapids, Michigan. His most recent book, On the Road with Saint Augustine: A Real-World Spirituality for Restless Hearts, was published just last month.

Some Influences

Augustine of Hippo has definitely had a major impact on Smith, but when it comes to his thinking about virtues Alasdair MacIntyre and Aristotle may well have been more influential. There is a lot of evidence for this including the naming of Aristotle and/or MacIntyre in the context of virtue passages, frequent references to the 1984 edition of MacIntyre’s After Virtue as well as the following passage in Smith’s Awaiting the King:

“Akin (and indebted) to the work of Stanley Hauerwas, my argument regarding liturgical formation is broadly “MacIntyrean,” inheriting Alasdair MacIntyre’s retrieval and renewal of an Aristotelian and Thomistic emphasis on habit, character, and virtue – and hence narrative, tradition, and community.”[1]

Virtue Passages

There are quite a number of virtue passages spread out over Smith’s writings. Many of them are found in Smith’s Cultural Liturgies trilogy (Desiring the Kingdom, Imagining the Kingdom and Awaiting the King) and at least many if not most of these passages are dealt with in my thesis. But many of the virtue passages are found elsewhere, for example, in Smith’s more popular-level book, You Are What You Love.

Now, it is possible to draw up an account of virtues on the basis of or informed by virtue passages in Smith’s writings and that is something which I have done in the context of my thesis. Based on that Smithian virtue account, I have given a shorter account below. Hopefully, reading this account will give you a pretty good understanding of some claims and beliefs of Smith about virtues.

A Brief Smithian Virtue Account

Human virtues are good bodily dispositions. They are goal-oriented because they are aimed at that particular communal way of life that is the good life (also known as the kingdom of God), of which virtues themselves are a part. In addition to human virtues, there are also human vices, which are bad bodily dispositions. At least a lot of human action is partially the result of virtues or vices.

At least the following dispositions are human virtues: the disposition to love, the disposition to be just, the disposition to be compassionate, the disposition to be kind, the disposition to be humble, the disposition to be meek, the disposition to be patient, the disposition to tolerate, the disposition to be longsuffering, the disposition to be merciful, the disposition to forgive and the disposition to hope.

Human beings can only have virtues through acquiring them and that through repeated (body-shaping) action in the context of participating in virtue-forming practices, such as (proper) Christian prayer, confession and church services. Mere participation in such practices does not guarantee that someone will turn out fully virtuous and fully aimed at the good life. The outcome depends in part on how much one participates in virtue-forming practices and vice-forming practices.

Some Concerns and Questions

Some (including Smith himself) might have concerns and questions about aspects of the virtue account above. You might wonder, for example, whether it is really the case that human virtues can only be acquired through action by a human agent. Couldn’t virtues also be infused or otherwise formed by God in a human being? Couldn’t someone (Jesus perhaps?) be / have been innately or naturally virtuous? Are virtues only formed in the context of Christian practices? What about Jewish or Islamic practices? Do they only form vices?

[1] James K.A. Smith, Awaiting the King: Reforming Public Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2014), 170.