A Brief Reader on the Virtues of the Human Heart

This was an excellent, coherent, brief look at the cardinal virtues through a distinctly Christian lens. Highly recommended.

Pieper spends much of his effort in defining the true meaning behind words that have been perverted or lost their depth of meaning over time. Words like: faith, prudence, listening, silence, fortitude, patience, sensuality, passion, anger, indolence, magnamity, humility, hope, and acedia. The modern mind, it would appear, has lost the vocabulary keys to salvation and proper moral elocution. Pieper argues, in the simpliest, if not only way, I can define, that too much subjection of one's senses to unfilterd, unanalyzed, unrationalized, unpassioned exposure can lead to a distancing from one's true nature of self, and also a distancing, if not hopeless seperation, from cummunication with the divine. The between-the-lines inference here is too much tv, newspapers, cnn, and anything that is unpassioned and unrationalized to oneself is detrimental to the soul. It is noise, noise, and does not fill the heart, too much of this state and one's heart can get out of tune, possibly irrevocably. Pieper argues that acedia is the state of one not fulfilling the true beauty of one's divine nature and passion. This laziness of endeavor is a sin against nature and God, as well as to oneself. Not a feel good bandaid sort of book of nice little aphorisms. This book is deadly serious and after a serious reading one might be lucky enough to realize the big job involved in being oneself, and how important that is to God. As serious as the air one breaths. Silence and rationalized enrichment, Pieper defines them both. A superficial reading of the book might lead one to think it is just a bunch of unconnected maxims - far from it. A nice little book. Bring a dictionary.

This book is one of the greatest books you will ever own, and it is worth reading more than once, underlining and making notations throughout, so that you can go back and meditate on Pieper's words. Pieper keeps things simple, but I spent some time reading back over sections so often. His section on magnanimity is a personal favorite of mine, and ties the book together in a lot of ways.

I bought this book so I could give it to people interested in the subject. I have already read Piepers two books on the virtures (four cardinal and three theological virtues). Had I not already read those books this book would have been almost impossible to read. This books brevity is due to Pieper assuming that you already understand the virtues, not because it is simple.All the aside, this book is awesome. It reaches out and touches ideas that almost seem out of grasp. It like reading Descartes ointological argument, you know it amazing but you have to read it 20 times before you grasp what is being said.

A short book, but tightly written and not repetitive. The writer presents a logical outline of how the Christian values or virtues are related to each other, and how they are part of the reality of which the Almighty is the author.For this reader, with a Protestant theological education, the going is slow, but the reward is great.

Pieper is a wonderful Roman Catholic theologian. He is able to pull the virtues from the pastand offer them fresh to our age when virtues are not recognized or even in vogue. A knowledge of the virtures equips any person with guidelines for living in any age.

Tremendously impactful on my spiritual life; I could spend spend an hour in prayer contemplating one sentence. Beautifully written, intelligent, and insightful.

Josef Pieper goes through each virtue with surgical precision. The book is only sixty pages or so, its value is incalculable!