Temperance

Virtue Cardinal

Definition

Dictionary

Merriam-Webster 1

    • Moderation in action, thought, or feeling (RESTRAINT) 2.
    • habitual moderation in the indulgence f the appetites or passions
    • moderation in or abstinence from the use of alcoholic beverages

Lutheranism

Summary

Lutheranism affirms temperance as self-control within the Christian life, emphasizing it as a fruit of faith and the Holy Spirit. In its confessional teaching:

  • Temperance follows salvation; it does not earn it. Good works arise from faith and renewal, while acceptance before God rests on Christ. (Smalcald Articles, III.13)
  • Self-discipline matters. Restraining sinful desires and practicing moderation belong to a life guided by God’s commandments. This obedience remains imperfect and dependent on grace. (Formula of Concord, VI)
  • Practices such as fasting can help. Luther calls fasting useful outward training, but it cannot replace faith or make someone spiritually worthy. (Small Catechism)
  • Discipline should serve ordinary life and duty. Luther rejects fasting so extreme that it damages health; its purpose is to restrain disordered desires. (Treatise on Good Works)

For your map, a Lutheran framing would be temperance → fruit_of → Spirit-worked faith, and temperance → belongs_to → sanctification. This summarizes the theological emphasis; it is not a formal Lutheran taxonomy corresponding to Aquinas’s “potential parts.”

Expanded account with checked references

| Catholic Thomistic | Lutheran | | —————— | ——– |

A working definition:

Lutheranism understands temperance

Contrast with Aquinas

Topic Thomas Aquinas Classical Lutheranism
Place of temperance A cardinal virtue moderating bodily pleasures; related virtues extend moderation to other desires and passions. Christian self-control, understood chiefly within sanctification and obedience to God.
How it develops Distinguishes acquired temperance, formed through practice, from infused temperance, given by God and directed toward a supernatural end. Distinguishes outward self-restraint, possible through natural capacities, from spiritual obedience produced by the Holy Spirit through faith.
Relation to salvation Acquired virtue cannot attain supernatural salvation; infused temperance belongs to the life of grace. Temperance follows justification as a fruit of faith; it neither earns forgiveness nor forms the basis of acceptance before God.
Meekness and studiousness “Potential parts” of temperance: associated virtues moderating anger and the desire for knowledge. Compatible with Christian discipleship, but their classification under temperance is not a defining confessional teaching.
Practical emphasis Ordering desires according to reason and, in infused virtue, the divine rule. Restraining sinful desires and serving one’s neighbor in ordinary callings, guided by God’s commandments.
Suggested map relation meekness / studiositas → potential_part_of → temperance temperance → belongs_to → sanctification; Christian temperance is fruit_of → Spirit-worked faith.

Sources: Aquinas, Summa I–II, 63, II–II, 141, 157, and 166; Lutheran confessions, Augsburg Confession XVIII, Formula of Concord III, and VI.

Calvinism

Summary

Classical Calvinism understands temperance as self-control produced by the Holy Spirit, through which believers govern their desires and grow in holiness.

  • A fruit of the Spirit. Temperance belongs to the renewed Christian life, alongside gentleness, patience, and love. (Calvin, commentary on Galatians 5:22–26)
  • Part of sanctification. Growth involves weakening sinful desires and strengthening obedience to God. This remains an imperfect, lifelong struggle. (Westminster Confession, chapter 13)
  • Practiced actively through dependence on grace. Believers must exercise self-discipline, while their ability to perform spiritually good works comes from the Spirit of Christ. (Westminster Confession, 16.3)
  • Evidence of faith, without earning salvation. Temperate conduct expresses gratitude, benefits others, and glorifies God; it cannot merit forgiveness or eternal life. (Westminster Confession, 16.2–5)

For your map: temperance → fruit_of → Holy Spirit, and temperance → belongs_to → sanctification. Its exercise can also be evidence_of → living faith.

On these points, Calvinism and classical Lutheranism substantially agree; the distinction from Aquinas concerns the theological framework more than the practical value of moderation.

Contrast with Aquinas

Topic Thomas Aquinas Calvinism
Place of temperance A cardinal virtue moderating bodily pleasures; associated virtues extend moderation to other passions and desires. Self-control understood chiefly as a fruit of the Holy Spirit within sanctification.
How it develops Distinguishes acquired temperance, formed through practice, from infused temperance, given by God. Christian temperance develops through the Spirit’s renewal, expressed in active obedience and self-discipline.
Natural self-restraint Acquired temperance is a genuine natural virtue, distinct from infused virtue directed toward supernatural life. Outward restraint can benefit oneself and others, but spiritually good conduct requires faith, conformity to God’s Word, and the aim of glorifying God.
Relation to salvation Acquired temperance cannot attain supernatural salvation; infused temperance belongs to the life of grace. Temperance is a fruit and evidence of saving faith; it does not earn justification or eternal life.
Meekness and studiousness “Potential parts” of temperance, moderating anger and the desire for knowledge. Gentleness and disciplined learning are compatible with Christian obedience; their classification under temperance is not a defining Reformed teaching.
Practical emphasis Ordering desires according to reason and, in infused temperance, the divine rule. Restraining sinful desires, growing in holiness, and using one’s life to glorify God and serve others.
Suggested map relation meekness / studiositas → potential_part_of → temperance temperance → fruit_of → Holy Spirit; temperance → belongs_to → sanctification.

Sources: Aquinas, Summa I–II, 63, II–II, 141, 157, and 166; Calvin, commentary on Galatians 5:22–26; Westminster Confession, chapters 13 and 16.

Methodism (Check References)

Summary

Methodism understands temperance as grace-enabled self-control within a life growing in holiness and love. Its distinctive emphasis is on putting that transformation into practice.

  • Part of sanctification. God’s grace renews desires and conduct, directing believers toward love of God and neighbor. Temperance serves this larger goal of holiness. (Wesleyan emphases)
  • Cultivated through active participation in grace. Prayer, Scripture, fasting, Communion, and mutual accountability help believers grow in disciplined living. These practices receive and respond to grace; they do not purchase it. (Means of grace)
  • A fruit of faith, without earning forgiveness. Good works follow living faith and are pleasing to God through Christ, but cannot remove sin. (Articles of Religion, Article X)
  • Personal and social in its effects. Methodist temperance has included a strong historical concern about alcohol and its harms to individuals, families, and communities. The United Methodist Church today commends abstinence without requiring it; this is a specific denominational position, not a universal rule for all Methodists. (United Methodist teaching on alcohol)

For your map: temperance → belongs_to → sanctification, enabled_by → grace, and serves → love of God and neighbor. These are summary relationships, rather than a formal Methodist classification of virtues.

Contrast with Aquinas

Topic Thomas Aquinas Classical Methodism (Wesleyan Tradition)
Place of temperance A cardinal virtue moderating bodily pleasures; associated virtues extend moderation to other passions and desires. Grace-enabled self-control within sanctification and growth in love of God and neighbor.
How it develops Distinguishes acquired temperance, developed through practice, from infused temperance, given by God. Develops through sanctifying grace and the believer’s active response, supported by prayer, fasting, Communion, and mutual accountability.
Relation to salvation Acquired temperance cannot attain supernatural salvation; infused temperance belongs to the life of grace. Temperance belongs to the transformation salvation brings; it does not earn forgiveness or justification.
Goal Desires ordered according to reason and, in infused virtue, the divine rule and supernatural end. Desires and conduct transformed toward perfect love—the Wesleyan goal of Christian perfection.
Meekness and studiousness “Potential parts” of temperance, moderating anger and the desire for knowledge. Meekness and disciplined learning support holy living; their classification under temperance is not a defining Wesleyan teaching.
Practical emphasis Habits of moderation, guided by prudence and integrated with the other virtues. Disciplined habits joining personal holiness with practical love and service to others.
Suggested map relation meekness / studiositas → potential_part_of → temperance temperance → belongs_to → sanctification; temperance → enabled_by → grace; temperance → serves → perfect love.

Sources: Aquinas, Summa I–II, 63, II–II, 141, 157, and 166; Methodist Articles of Religion, Article X, Wesleyan emphases, and means of grace.

Comparison

Tradition Definition Emphasis Role of Temperance Organizing Principle of Christian Ethics
Catholic (Thomistic emphasis) Moderation of bodily pleasures according to reason; related virtues govern other desires and passions. A cardinal virtue, acquired through practice or infused by God, integrated with the other virtues and perfected by charity. Pursuit of beatitude through a virtuous life, guided by reason and divine law, elevated by grace, and ordered by charity.
Lutheranism Spirit-enabled self-control expressed in faithful daily living. A fruit of faith within sanctification; serves the neighbor without earning justification. Justification by faith, distinguished from and followed by sanctification; God’s commandments guide love and service within ordinary callings.
Calvinism Spirit-produced self-control that restrains sinful desires and promotes holiness. Part of sanctification and evidence of living faith; glorifies God without meriting salvation. Union with Christ, bringing distinct but inseparable justification and sanctification; God’s moral law guides grateful obedience.
Methodism (Wesleyan tradition) Grace-enabled self-control cultivated through spiritual discipline and growth in love. Part of sanctification, developed through active response to grace and directed toward perfect love. Grace-enabled growth in holiness toward love of God and neighbor, joining personal devotion with practical service.

These are differences of emphasis: all four affirm grace, self-discipline, love, and obedience.

Sources: Aquinas, on temperance and acquired and infused virtues; Lutheran Formula of Concord, VI; Reformed Westminster Confession, chapters 11–16 and 19; Methodist Wesleyan emphases.

New Advent Encyclopedia 2

Temperance is here considered as one of the four cardinal virtues. It may be defined as the righteous habit which makes a man govern his natural appetite for pleasures of the senses in accordance with the norm prescribed by reason. In one sense temperance may be regarded as a characteristic of all the moral virtues; the moderation it enjoins is central to each of them. It is also according to St. Thomas (II-II:141:2) a special virtue. Thus, it is the virtue which bridles concupiscence or which controls the yearning for pleasures and delights which most powerfully attract the human heart. These fall mainly into three classes: some are associated with the preservation of the human individual; others with the perpetuation of the race, and others still with the well-being and comfort of human life. Under this aspect temperance has for subordinate virtues, abstinence, chastity, and modesty. Abstinence prescribes the restraint to be employed in the partaking of food and drink. Obviously the measure of this self-restraint is not constant and invariable. It is different for different persons as well as for different ends in view. The diet of an anchorite would not do for a farm labourer. Abstinence is opposed to the vices of gluttony and drunkenness. The disorder of these is that food and drink are made use of in such wise as to damage instead of benefit the bodily health. Hence gluttony and drunkenness are said to be intrinsically wrong. That does not mean, however, that they are always grievous sins. Gluttony is seldom such; drunkenness is so when it is complete, that is when it destroys the use of reason for the time being. Chastity as a part of temperance regulates the sensual satisfactions connected with the propagation of the human species. The contrary vice is lust. As these pleasures appeal with the special vehemence to human nature, it is the function of chastity to impose the norm of reason. Thus it will decide that they are altogether to be refrained from in obedience to a higher vocation or at any rate only availed of with reference to the purposes of marriage. Chastity is not fanaticism; much less is it insensibility. It is the carrying out of the mandate of temperance in a particular department where such a steadying power is acutely needed.

The virtue of modesty, as ranged under temperance, has as its task the holding in reasonable leash of the less violent human passions. It brings into service humility to set in order a man’s interior. By transfusing his estimates with truth, and increasing his self-knowledge it guards him against the radical malice of pride. It is averse to pusillanimity, the product of low views and a mean-spirited will. In the government of the exterior of a man modesty aims to make it conform to the demands of decency and decorousness (honestas). In this way his whole outward tenor of conduct and method of life fall under its sway. Such things as his attire, manner of speech, habitual bearing, style of living, have to be made to square with its injunctions. To be sure they cannot always be settled by hard and fast rules. Convention will often have a good deal to say in the case, but in turn will have its propriety determined by modesty. Other virtues are enumerated by St. Thomas as subordinate to temperance inasmuch as they imply moderation in the management of some passion. It ought to be noted, however, that in its primary and generally understood sense temperance is concerned with what is difficult for a man, not in so far as he is a rational being precisely, but rather in so far as he is an animal. The hardest duties for flesh and blood are self-restraint in the use of food and drink and of the venereal pleasures that go with the propagation of the race. That is why abstinence and chastity may be reckoned the chief and ordinary phases of this virtue. All that has been said receives additional force if we suppose that the self-control commanded by temperance is measured not only by the rule of reason but by the revealed law of God as well. It is called a cardinal virtue because the moderation required for every righteous habit has in the practice of temperance a specially trying arena. The satisfactions upon which it imposes a check are at once supremely natural and necessary in the present order of human existence. It is not, however, the greatest of moral virtues. That rank is held by prudence; then come justice, fortitude, and finally temperance.

Catechism of the Catholic Church 3

CCC 377

The “mastery” over the world that God offered man from the beginning was realized above all within man himself: mastery of self. The first man was unimpaired and ordered in his whole being because he was free from the triple concupiscence (Cf. Jn 2:16). that subjugates him to the pleasures of the senses, covetousness for earthly goods, and self-assertion, contrary to the dictates of reason.

CCC 1809

Temperance is the moral virtue that moderates the attraction of pleasures and provides balance in the use of created goods. It ensures the will’s mastery over instincts and keeps desires within the limits of what is honorable. The temperate person directs the sensitive appetites toward what is good and maintains a healthy discretion: “Do not follow your inclination and strength, walking according to the desires of your heart.” Temperance is often praised in the Old Testament: “Do not follow your base desires, but restrain your appetites.” In the New Testament it is called “moderation” or “sobriety.” We ought “to live sober, upright, and godly lives in this world.”To live well is nothing other than to love God with all one’s heart, with all one’s soul and with all one’s efforts; from this it comes about that love is kept whole and uncorrupted (through temperance). No misfortune can disturb it (and this is fortitude). It obeys only [God] (and this is justice), and is careful in discerning things, so as not to be surprised by deceit or trickery (and this is prudence).

CCC 1838

Temperance moderates the attraction of the pleasures of the senses and provides balance in the use of created goods.

CCC 2290

The virtue of temperance disposes us to avoid every kind of excess: the abuse of food, alcohol, tobacco, or medicine. Those incur grave guilt who, by drunkenness or a love of speed, endanger their own and others’ safety on the road, at sea, or in the air.

Josef Pieper 4

  • The purpose and goal of temperantia is man;s inner order, from which alone this ‘serenity of spirit’ can flow forth. Temperance signifies the realizing of this order within oneself. p147
  • The goal and norm of temperance is blessedness. p188
  • Temperance aims at each man himself. Unlike the other three that aim outside of man.
  • Temperance is selfless self-preservation. Intemperance is self-destruction through selfish degradation of the powers which aim at self-preservation. p148
  • Through temperance a moral person can live effectively p150
  • Self-preservation is echoed in the desire for food, drink, and sexual pleasure. Temperance defends the person agains the perversion of the inner order of these desires.
  • Temperance opposes the impulsive destructive and pathological compulsive greed for these goods necessary for self-preservation.
  • The idea is not to “turn off” the God given desires for these goods (food, drink, sex, knowledge, etc.), but to pursue them in an ordered way.
  • Man needs to have constant spiritual awareness, anything that clouds it is unspiritual, consequently unworthy of the human condition, and therefore evil. p157
    • To navigate the technological world, a person needs spiritual awareness… I will need to define what that is, but in general terms is to know himself spiritually, where strengths and weaknesses reside, and how to take advantage of strengths and avoid temptation on weaknesses, or strengthening the soul and grow in virtue in the weak points.
  • Adultery is both intemperate and unjust. p158
  • Unchastity begets a blindness of spirit. p159
    • I once read somewhere that lust diminishes the intellect
  • Chastity leads to contemplation
    • Chastity helps with focus; distraction in the tech-era and lack of abilities to concentrate are characteristics of current generations
  • Temperantia varies according to the individual, who could determine when lack of control ends and when actual intemperance begins? p165
    • It becomes necessary to know oneself
  • Temperance is something exclusive to humanity p166
  • We must never lose sight of the fact that the essential nature of sin lies exclusively in this willful turning away from God. p173
  • Temperance is the prerequisite for both the realization of the good and the actual movement of man toward this goal. p175
  • Virginity is not a fact, byt an act; not a condition, but a decision. p176
  • Marriage is both a natural and a supernatural good. p177
  • Our natural duty obligues us to pay dearlu so that we may become what we are by essence: the free moral person in full possesion of himself. p182
  • Fasting is related to the virtue of abstinentia, related to the art of healing p183
  • Fasting should be performed with a cheerful heart.
    • As should all virtues
  • Hebetudo sensus: the dulling and obscuring of te inner perception of spiritual realities. p184
  • Can a robot be sentient?
  • Where there is no sense of touch, there is no sentient life. p186
  • Among all sentient creatures man has the best sense of touch. p186
  • The human soul is simultaneously vegetative, sentient, and rational.
  • Sentient life is characterized by sensation and appetite; and in human beings elevated and governed by reason.
  • To possess better sense of touch is to possess better cognition. p186
  • The sense of touch is the basis of all other senses. p187
  • The virtue of high-mindedness (magnanimity) is when a man feels the potentiality of greateness and prepares for it. p189
    • Implies a firmness of hope, an actually challenging assurance, and the perfect peace of a fearless heart. p190
  • Wrath and Anger
    • Wrath is a force directed toward the difficult of achievement, toward the thing beyond the easy grasp, ever ready to expose itself wherever an arduous goodwaits to be conquered. p193
    • Wrath is the strength to attack the repugnant; the power of anger is actually the power of resistance of the soul.
    • Wrath is a passionate desire for just retribution of injustice that has been suffered. p194
    • Anger is good if, in accordance with the order of reason, it is brought unto service for the true goals of man.
    • Anger tha breaks all bountds and disrupts the order of reason is evil and is sin.
    • Blind wrath, bitterness of spirit, and revengeful resentment, the three forms of intemperate anger.
    • Meekness: is the inner disposition that governs anger;
    • Gentleness: is its characteristic expression in how we treat others.
    • Gentleness above all makes man master of himself. p195
  • In terms of the desire for knowledge, if temperate is called studiositas, if intemperate is called curiositas
  • Acedia is the dreary sadness of a heart unwilling to accept the greatness to which man is called by God 
    Acedia (sloth) --> curiositas
             --> despair
  • Temperance and intemperance of outward behavior and expression can have its strenghtening or weakining repercusion on the inner order of man. p204
  • Temperance effects purification p205
  • Temperance is served by solitude, fasting, night watches, and penitence

Aristotle said there are four ways to live one’s life: full vice, full virtue (you know what is good and effortlessly seek it), continentia (you summon the will to go after the good, it requires effort), incontenentia (barely aware of the good, the will is broken).

  • Full virtue, or vice has deep roots in the basic attitude of man. It becomes second nature.
  • Incontinentia and continentia, “neither is necessarily based on what might be called a natural inclination of being; neither has yet grown firm roots in the existential core of man. p163

Vice over Virtue 5

  • “Because our needs are limited, but our wants are unlimited, a virtue is necessary to restrain our inordinate appetites and desires – and that virtue is called temperance. It has for object the regulation of the sensible appetites by reason.”
  • Temperance moderates gluttony and lust.

Magisterium AI

Prompt: “What does the Church says about the virtue of temperance”

The Church teaches that temperance is one of the four cardinal virtues. It moderates our attraction to pleasure, gives the will mastery over instinct, and helps us use created goods with balance. 3 6

Temperance does not mean rejecting pleasure or becoming joyless. Rather, it orders desire according to reason and what is truly good. The temperate person is not ruled by appetites, anger, possessions, or the desire for approval, but exercises appropriate self-control. 7 8

The Catechism applies temperance especially to avoiding excess in food, alcohol, tobacco, and medicine. Drunkenness or reckless behavior that endangers oneself or others can involve grave guilt. 9

Temperance also includes related virtues such as sobriety, abstinence, chastity, modesty, humility, meekness, and self-control. It helps a person speak, act, and respond with the “right measure,” including in anger and relationships. 7 10

In summary, temperance is rightly ordered enjoyment: it makes you master of yourself, so that your desires serve genuine human flourishing and love of God rather than control you.

ChatGPT

Prompt: “Please define temperance and provide references to your definition”

Temperance is the cardinal moral virtue by which the appetites for sensible pleasure are governed according to right reason, so that a person desires and enjoys created goods in the right measure, at the right time, and for the right ends.

In Thomistic terms, temperance does not mean simply denying oneself pleasure. Rather, it brings the sensitive appetite into harmony with reason. Aquinas explicitly says that temperance does not withdraw a person from pleasures that are consistent with reason, but from pleasures or desires that conflict with reason.

Aquinas’s account

Aquinas distinguishes two senses of temperance:

  1. Temperance in a broad sense means moderation according to reason. In this sense, moderation belongs to every moral virtue.
  2. Temperance as a specific virtue governs those appetites whose pleasures exert an especially powerful attraction on us.

The second sense is the one relevant to Temperance as one of the four cardinal virtues.

For Aquinas, its proper matter is principally the pleasures associated with touch, especially those connected with the preservation of the individual and the species: principally food, drink, and sexual activity. He follows Aristotle closely on this point.

Thus, a good concise Thomistic definition would be:

Temperance is the virtue that moderates the desire for sensible pleasures according to right reason, especially the pleasures of food, drink, and sexuality, thereby ordering the sensitive appetite toward the human good.

The “mean” of temperance

This is important for our virtues map: temperance is not simply restraint or abstinence.

The temperate person does not necessarily desire less. He desires things as reason directs.

Aristotle describes the temperate person as desiring the right pleasures, in the right manner and measure, under the governance of reason. Aquinas adopts essentially the same principle.

So temperance lies between two disorders:

Defect ← Temperance → Excess

  • Defect: an unreasonable rejection or deficiency of legitimate pleasure
  • Temperance: properly ordered enjoyment
  • Excess: intemperance, where pleasure or desire exceeds the rule of reason

Aristotle even notes that the deficient extreme is sufficiently rare that it historically lacked a common name; he calls it a kind of insensibility (anaisthēsia).

This makes temperance structurally similar to what we have already been doing with the cardinal virtues: it is a virtue ordering a particular power or passion toward the good, rather than simply suppressing that power.

Why it is a cardinal virtue

Aquinas explains that moderation is characteristic of moral virtue generally, but it is especially manifest in temperance because temperance governs pleasures that exert a particularly strong natural attraction upon us. Because these desires are deeply rooted in human nature, reason’s ability to order them represents one of the principal expressions of moral virtue. Thus temperance is one of the four cardinal, or principal, virtues.

There is therefore a particularly useful contrast among the cardinal virtues:

Cardinal virtue What it principally perfects/orders
Prudence Reason in discerning and commanding the good
Justice The will in giving others their due
Fortitude The passions in facing difficulties and dangers
Temperance The appetites in attraction toward sensible pleasures

Temperance is therefore concerned especially with the concupiscible appetite: it prevents attraction toward pleasure from pulling the person away from the order established by reason.

Catechism

The Catechism of the Catholic Church gives a very compact definition:

“Temperance is the moral virtue that moderates the attraction of pleasures and provides balance in the use of created goods.”

It further explains that temperance establishes the will’s mastery over instincts and keeps desires within honorable limits. CCC 1809.

This formulation is slightly broader in wording than Aquinas’s technical treatment, but it expresses the same fundamental principle: created goods are genuinely good and may be enjoyed, but desire for them must remain ordered toward the true human good.

Augustine’s theological perspective

Augustine gives temperance a distinctly theological formulation. In De Moribus Ecclesiae Catholicae, he interprets the four cardinal virtues as forms of rightly ordered love and defines temperance as love that preserves itself whole for God. He later describes its function as restraining passions that draw a person away from God’s law and the enjoyment of God.

That adds an important Christian dimension to the Aristotelian-Thomistic account:

Temperance does not merely establish psychological balance. It orders our love of created goods so that they do not displace our highest good—God.

Definition I recommend for our Virtues Map

Given how we have defined Prudence, Justice, and Fortitude, I would use:

Temperance is the cardinal virtue that moderates the appetites for sensible pleasure according to right reason, especially the pleasures associated with food, drink, and sexuality, ordering them toward the true good of the person.

And perhaps a slightly longer description in the Markdown node:

Temperance perfects the sensitive appetite by moderating attraction toward pleasure according to reason. It does not reject pleasure as evil but enables a person to desire and enjoy created goods in the right manner, measure, circumstances, and end. Its principal matter concerns the pleasures of touch, particularly food, drink, and sexuality. Through temperance, sensible desires become harmonious with reason rather than ruling over it.

Primary references

  • Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, II-II, q. 141, aa. 1–8, especially:
    • a.1 — whether temperance is a virtue
    • a.2 — temperance as a general moderation and as a specific virtue
    • aa.3–5 — its proper matter: desires and pleasures, especially pleasures of touch
    • a.6 — the rule according to which pleasures are moderated
    • a.7 — why temperance is a cardinal virtue.
  • Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, II.7; III.10–12, especially III.10–11 on temperance as the mean concerning bodily pleasures and on appetite’s conformity to rational principle.
  • Augustine, De Moribus Ecclesiae Catholicae (On the Morals of the Catholic Church), I.15, I.19–21, on temperance as rightly ordered love and restraint of passions that turn us away from God.
  • Catechism of the Catholic Church, §1809, definition of temperance as moderation of the attraction of pleasures and balance in the use of created goods.

For the Virtues Map, the next step should be particularly interesting: Aquinas’s treatment of Temperance has a very clear hierarchy of integral parts, subjective parts, and potential parts in ST II-II qq.143–170. That will give us a fairly substantial set of nodes—abstinence, sobriety, chastity, virginity, continence, humility, meekness, clemency, modesty, studiositas, and others—and the corresponding vices.

Holy Family School of Faith 11

One The Nature of Temperance

Throughout our lives, we will all have struggles against temptations for what we know to be detrimental to ourselves and others. Temperance is the virtue which counteracts these temptations. Temperance moderates our desires and enables us to keep from doing what’s wrong, even when we have strong feelings for it. In other words, temperance is what keeps us from sinning, even when we want to.

Two Temperance as Last of the Virtues

Temperance is the last of the cardinal virtues. That’s because temperance is about protecting the good, but you can only protect the good if you already have some idea of what the good is and how to acquire it. More important, more fundamental, are prudence (which is how we know the good) and justice and fortitude (which is how we do the good). After these comes temperance, which is how we avoid doing evil or losing the good.

The problem is that plenty of people see the major goal of the Christian life as the avoidance of sin. If you were to ask the question “What’s a good Christian?” you’d get a lot of people who’d answer in purely negative terms, “A good Christian is someone who doesn’t fornicate, or murder, or get drunk, or do drugs, or tell dirty jokes, or steal.”

That’s a tragically deficient account of virtue. After all, people in comas don’t do any of these things, neither do some terribly evil people, nor do the demons, but when we think of ideal Christians, hopefully we don’t think of comatose persons, or evil men, or fallen angels.

Three Focus on Pursuit of the Good

Someone isn’t a good Christian, or even a good person, because he doesn’t do certain things, but because he does certain things, because he pursues the goods of life, because he strives to promote beauty, health, holiness, friendship, truth, etc. We have to make sure our focus is more on doing good than on avoiding evil. In the moral life, the best defense is a good offense, which is why more emphasis should be put on the first three cardinal virtues than on temperance. All the same, if you don’t have temperance, if you don’t have self-control, you’ll never have the other virtues.

Unless your desires are under control, you won’t be able to clearly and fairly judge what’s right in a given situation. In which case, you won’t be prudent. Unless your desires are under control, you’ll only care about what you want instead of what other people have a right to. In which case, you won’t be just. And unless your desires are under control, you won’t be able to give up or risk certain things in pursuit of the greater good. In which case, you won’t be courageous.

In a way, we can say that the job of temperance is to make sure the other virtues can do their job. In which case, temperance, even though it’s the last of the virtues, is just as indispensable as any of the others.

Four An Analogy for the Four Cardinal Virtues

At this point, it may be helpful to sum up the four cardinal virtues using the analogy of learning to drive a car. If you want to learn to drive, the first thing you need to learn is how to steer the car; this corresponds to the virtue of prudence. Next, you’ll have to learn to be aware of surrounding traffic, to be able to relate to other cars on the road; this skill corresponds to the virtue of justice. Thirdly, you’ll have to learn how to use the accelerator, how to depress the pedal with sufficient (but not excessive) force for propelling you to your destination; that’s fortitude. Lastly, you have to learn how to avoid crashes and mechanical failures; this ability corresponds to the virtue of temperance.

Obviously, nobody buys a car to avoid crashes. You buy a car to help you get places. So too, the main purpose of life isn’t just avoiding sin, but rather to attain perfect happiness. Nonetheless, if the car crashes or breaks down, it’s not going to get you very far, and if we don’t avoid sin, we’re not going to become very happy.

So even though temperance shouldn’t be confused with the Christian’s ultimate goal, it’s still an essential prerequisite for happiness.

Five Temperance and the Hierarchy of Goods

Temperance and fortitude are alike in that they both recognize an objective hierarchy of goods. And so both of them recognize which lower goods you have to be able to let go of to preserve and attain the higher good. Temperance knows not to pursue some good things because it knows that some things are better. Temperance recognizes that a beer is a good thing, but it knows that sobriety is better than the drink that brings you to the point of drunkenness. Temperance recognizes that the love of a young, beautiful woman is a good thing, but it knows that fidelity to your wife, to the mother of your children, is better than the temporary boost to your ego you might get from an affair with a younger woman.

Temperance recognizes that reputation, accomplishment, financial security, and the world itself are good things, but it knows that it profits a man nothing if he gains the world and loses his soul. Temperance knows that God is the greatest of all goods, and this knowledge, the most fundamental knowledge of all virtue, prevents the temperate man from running after any good that will take Him away from the Divine Source of Goodness who is the Satisfaction of All Desire.

Ideas

I believe that a discussion on the powers of the soul (intellect, emotions, and will) will enlighten many of the concepts explored here. In many cases, the “will” has been mentioned. For instance, in the MAI definition, it says that temperance is “a positive disposition that enables the will to govern instincts.” Would it be appropriate to say that temperance can also be used to moderate one’s use of technology? Some recurrent questions:

  • How will the application of virtue X will help me navigate the world of AI and technology better?
  • How to grow in these virtues in the modern world?
  • How to apply virtue X in the design, development, marketing, and use of a given technology?
  • How will these virtues will make me a better software developer? (Is this the end?) One of the things I’ve observed is that people have lost sensitivity to sin. We don’t look away on gory, violent, sexual movies or commercials. And the public still wants more. How close are we to being able to produce these using AI? How to decide or discern if a choice is morally right when we don’t know for certain its effect in the future, or when the issue is not clear-cut? We must be careful. Prayer is the solution, as a personal and intimate relation with our Father will help us in the decision making process. “It is part of that perverse psychology which makes us suit our thinking to the way we live, rather than suiting the way we live to our thinking.”

XXXX Case

Book Ideas

Seattle Pacific University Virtue Framework

Justice is the moral virtue that gives each person what is their due—that is, it respects and protects others’ rights and obligations, so that what is owing is rendered rather than treated as mere optional generosity.

• Justice as the inward commitment to and outward expression of righteousness that works against oppression to affirm and restore the dignity of all God’s creation.

References

  1. Merriam Webster: Temperance ↩

  2. New Advent Encyclopedia: Temperance ↩

  3. CCC, 1809 ↩ ↩2

  4. Pieper, Josef. The Four Cardinal Virtues. Translated by Richard and Clara Winston. University of Notre Dame Press, 1966. ↩

  5. SHEEN, FULTON J. VICTORY OVER VICE & THE SEVEN VIRTUES. S.l.: BISHOP SHEEN TODAY, 2021. ↩

  6. Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, 383 ↩

  7. General Audience of 17 April 2024 - Cycle of Catechesis. Vices and Virtues. 15. Temperance, Cycle of Catechesis. Vices and Virtues. 15. Temperance ↩ ↩2

  8. General Audience of 22 November 1978, page1 ↩

  9. CCC, 2290 ↩

  10. Catholic Encyclopedia, Virtue ↩

  11. “Temperance.” School of Faith, n.d. https://schooloffaith.com/rosary-archive/temperance-3. ↩