VIRTUOUS LIVING - Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University

3.3.1.6 Concluding reflection on wisdom as “foundational” to virtuouslivingThis chapter – in pursuit of a providing a “content” to virtue moral theory – firstoutlined the seven virtues common to traditional literature in this regard. It was thenargued that the virtue of wisdom may be construed as foundational virtue as it bothpermeates and “leads” the application of other virtues in the practicalities of everydaylife, both personal and communal.To understand how wisdom itself is perceived, four traditions were analysed. All fourwisdom traditions discussed above have played and continue to play a significant rolein the search for morality. The only task that now remains, is to focus on the Africanand Christian traditions (without exclusion of the others) to see whether a wisdomtheology can be constructed that both takes the particular cultural forms of Africanwisdom seriously, and does not relinquish the main tenets and particularities of theChristian tradition.Specifically as a Christian endeavour, it is presupposed that the personification ofwisdom in the person and ministry of Jesus Christ, will both complement andcritically supersede all human wisdom as embodied in various traditions (notexcluding a self-critical criterion for the Christian tradition itself!) A secondpresupposition is that the church is to be seen as the embodiment of Christ’s wisdomas it shapes people for virtuous living in the world. As such the church itself has thecalling to be an exemplary community of the wise, acting both as inspiration for andcritique of other institutional forms in society.This wise community should transcend the cultural and exclusive establishment of theGreek polis. The power of the polis, as noted earlier, was for conquest andcompetitive self-aggrandisement. The intellectual capacities of the polis offeredspeculative philosophy. However, the practical wisdom of the Church, the body ofChrist, based on the virtue of charity, is extended to the whole community for thepurpose of the community’s formation, instruction, preservation, and renewal (cfBirch and Rasmussen 1989:32).296