You cannot make men good by law: and without good men you cannot have a good society.
~ C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
As candidate ads for the midterm elections peppered my mailbox and computer screen these past few weeks, I thought of this quote from C.S. Lewis. Mere Christianity is a required text in our 11th-grade Bible class as we discuss topics such as “What is Truth?” and “What is Goodness?”. It is in this second unit on goodness and ethics that we read Lewis’ reflections on morality.
Lewis proposes that most individuals agree about one aspect of morality: fair play and avoiding harm between individuals. However, a few other aspects are often neglected. One of those aspects is the internal life of the individual. We can establish laws and procedures to regulate how we interact with one another, and this is good. But ultimately, “You cannot make men good by law”. This leaves us with an unfortunate predicament, because, as Lewis claims, “without good men you cannot have a good society”.
The provided solution to this conundrum is Virtue Ethics. Humans cannot be made good simply by establishing rules, but as Christians we do believe that people can develop good character traits. Echoing our Lord and in cooperation with the Holy Spirit, Christians may strive to become people of love, faith, hope, temperance, courage, prudence, and justice. When we grow in these areas, we are transformed into the sort of people who choose to do the godly thing because it has become second nature to us.
Here at Front Range Christian, this kind of character development is integrated into what we do. The ten virtues of a Christian scholar are painted on our ECE windows and imbued into our high school classes (and also serve as our chapel theme this year). Our intent is transformation. We are working to see students transformed in heart and mind in order that they may impact our society for Christ.
