HEKIMA COLLEGE FUNDAMENTAL MORAL THEOLOGY IGNATIOUS MUNYORO SJ QUESTION: From the Functional viewpoint, demonstrate the connection

between the following variables: virtue, narrative and character. Virtue, narrative and character are intertwined. They all depend on each other. This short essay seeks to demonstrate from a functional viewpoint, the connection between the following variables: virtue, narrative and character. Virtue is an inherent power of the spirit situated between rationality and sensibility which move in terms of passion and affection to guide the whole person toward perfection. The dynamics of virtue requires the dynamics of the moral agent in the process of self-cultivation in order to attain the components of righteousness. Virtues are categorized as theological, intellectual, moral and Christian virtues. To attain virtue, one needs an effort of practice or cultivation. Virtues are geared to make the person good. They enable us to cultivate the potentiality of being good. With virtues people will do well not because of fear of punishment but because of their interiorised obligation. Moreover, even if one belongs to a virtuous family he/she is not guaranteed to be virtuous unless he/she cultivates virtues to be virtuous. Thus, one cannot be virtuous without an effort. There are religious and civic virtues. Tarimo Aquiline in his book Ethnicity, Citizenship and state in Eastern Africa, explains the differences between religious and civic virtues. He states that, the formation of public conscience presupposes an integration of religious and civic virtues.1 The moral goodness of the person who exists and participates in the public society needs to integrate religious and civic virtues. This means that the same person cannot fully become virtuous with civic virtues alone. Tarimo further explains that religious virtues and civic virtues are intrinsically interconnected.2 Thus a balanced person should exist both in a religious life attaining religious virtues while living in the society practising civic virtues which will be informed and strengthened by religious virtues. That is why religious virtues could be interpretated as a content of civic virtues.3 Tarimos argument simply states that religious and civic virtues are inseparable when we desire to have a good person in the society. With this contention, virtues in general become paramount and prerequisite in producing a good society. The challenge arises in how to make people in the society virtuous since virtue is not taught but attained through practice or cultivation. Virtues are horizons of values which make them abstract to attain. Therefore, virtue needs some kind of mediation to make itself pragmatic. This is where narratives are linked with virtues. Narratives are medium of virtues. They are cultural forms which bring together knowledge from lived experiences. The knowledge is expressed through the dynamics of language, myth, rituals and other forms of imagination. Narrative simply refers to the way of organising experiences as an accumulation of knowledge. Virtue depends on narratives as its media to express its spirit level to praxis level. Hence virtues will be useful if they are transmitted into knowledge by narratives. Narratives in the form of symbols, myth, imagination and language are passed on as tradition. What is passed on is information and acquired knowledge about life. This knowledge is transferred because it was traditionalized.
1 2

Tarimo Aquiline. Ethinicity, Citizenship and State in Eastern Africa. P131. Ibid, p132. 3 Ibid, p132.

There are sacred and ordinary narratives. Sacred narratives which are also called mystical narratives go beyond the empirical world. They help one to be self engaged. They develop self-engagement and commitment in an individual. Ordinary narratives are everyday experiences which arise from our relationship with the world. They communicate knowledge such as of existence. One example is the Big Bang Theory mythological story which communicates knowledge of the origin of the earth and the universe. Public or ordinary narratives leave the individualitys goodness or perfection to the responsibility of the mystical narratives. We cannot speak of virtues without narratives. Virtues are intrinsically narratives. Narratives develop character, cumulative sources of human experience, imaginations and moral vision. Moral knowledge cannot be transmitted without tradition. This means that virtues without narratives are silent since it will be impossible to transmit them without tradition found in narratives. We have reached a point where we argue that a person who exists in a society endowed with civic virtues has to integrate religious virtues to be good and perfect. The goal of both civic and religious virtues is to produce a good person in the society. They both contribute to the formation of the character and identity of the person. Now we delve into the link of character formation with virtues and narratives. Character formation is a process of self-cultivation which involves the dynamics of virtues and narratives. Formation of character needs an exercise of freedom and responsibility of an individual which can be understood as the realization of self and ones identity. Formation of character is an exercise of virtues through the medium of narratives and virtues. Character formation is embodiment of commitment process of self-determination. Character formation and virtue are closely interrelated because in moral formation we deal with the whole human person bringing experiences together. This refers to the dispositions and attitudes which mould the persons character. Character is that stage when the person has interiorised religious and public virtues through the process of narratives. The person has not just attained virtues through repetition but has now interiorised them to define his/her identity and character. As a whole person, through the process of narratives, one is viewed as virtuous with identity. However, there is no guarantee that a person will develop character with repetition of virtues. Characters are not wished but hoped because there is no permanent assurance of attaining them. The hope of having a character lies in the intention. Why our societies today need religion is that religion helps people develop persons character from deeper moral perspective. In societies, public laws are not the ones which make people do well but it is the virtues. The link between the three variables can well be understood if we remove one variable. If we remove narratives, its obvious that virtues will remain in the abstract level being useless in the civic or public life while the civic virtues in public life will also lack deeper meaning and praxis. Narratives will become functional when they transmit knowledge of virtues in to practical life. The formation of character of the person has its foundation in the process of interiorising virtues through narratives. From above arguments we could deduce that the three variables: virtue, narratives and character formation are closely linked and intertwined. Religious virtues are indirect input for the civic virtues. Both civic and religious virtues are dealing with the same person who exists in the civic society and religion. Thus this person will carry the religious virtues in the civic virtues. This entails that civic virtues are helped by religious virtues to built commitment in the person. Both religious and civic virtues together with narratives form the character of the person.