Virtue, understood properly, is the chief end of education. But since it is seldom understood properly, perhaps one should say virtue, piety, wisdom, and grace are the ends of education. Virtue is concerned with excellences of body and soul, personal growth, and flourishing in this world. While these are aspects of virtue, they are insufficient to define it. Virtue strives to fulfill human potential—vir-ness (vir is Latin for man)—which results in happiness or flourishing. But human potential is extraordinary. Humans possess the potential to be united with God. Plato thought virtue consisted merely in imitation of God. “[T]here is nothing so like [god] as that one of us who becomes most nearly perfect in righteousness…for the knowledge of this is wisdom or true virtue” (Thaetetus 176). But Plato questioned whether virtue can be taught or whether “virtue comes to the virtuous by the gift of God” (Meno 100).

Aristotle has a more mundane emphasis. Moral virtue is the mean between two vicious extremes and the result of well-formed habits of enjoying the good from a young age. Courage is the path between foolhardy bravado and cowardice (similarly, temperance and justice). The intellectual virtues, which include art, prudence, intuition, scientific analysis, and wisdom, are not moral virtues (except prudence, which is both) but distinct excellences of the mind, which can be taught. Exercising moral virtue leads to human flourishing. But moral virtue must be acquired early, likely from the family. “[W]e ought to have been brought up in a particular way from our very youth, as Plato says, so as both to delight in and to be pained by the things that we ought; for this is the right education” (Nich. Ethics 2.3).

Redirecting Aristotle, the Jewish thinker Philo of Alexandria recognizes the moral virtues in the last five of the ten commandments: thou shalt not murder, commit adultery, steal, bear false testimony, or covet. But Philo associates the first five commandments with the more Roman virtue of piety (On the Special Laws 4.16.97). Cicero said, “if we cast off piety towards the Gods…faith, and all the associations of human life, and that most excellent of all virtues, justice, may perish with it” (Nature of the Gods 1.3). Cicero saw piety as the mother of the virtues.

The Christian Augustine draws from New Testament passages. “[O]ver all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity” (Col 3:14). Christ summarizes the law. “You shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength” (Deut 6:5) and “love your neighbor as yourself” (Lev 19:18). Hence, Augustine defines virtue as ordered loves (City of God 15:22). The unity of virtue is the love of God, love of neighbor, and implicitly included appropriate self-love. Augustine’s notion of virtue restates Christ’s summary of the law.

But Augustine clarifies, “true virtues…cannot exist save in those that have true piety” (City of God 19.4). Without love and fear of God, piety, one cannot possess true virtue. Aquinas, good Augustinian that he is, says similarly:

The acquired virtue [of justice] is caused by works; but the infused virtue [of justice] is caused by God Himself through His grace. The latter is true justice, of which we are speaking now, and in this respect of which a man is said to be just before God…

While there is a virtue described as justice that is acquired by works, “true justice” is “caused by God Himself through His grace.” In this, Aquinas is Augustinian in his distinction between virtues and “true virtues.” True virtues only arise because of one’s relationship with Christ, a piety rooted in God’s grace. Nonetheless, Aquinas, good Aristotelian that he is, affirms the importance of habit for the virtues, a crucial point for crafting school culture (SumTheol I-II,q55.a1).

Few things in the Bible are heralded as goods in themselves that cannot be perverted, and wisdom is no exception. “Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?” Nonetheless, Christ is the “wisdom of God” (1 Cor 1:20-24). And the injunctions of Proverbs 4:5-6 to “get wisdom…love her” gave evidence to Augustine that the Platonic emphasis on philosophy, the love of wisdom, was “nearest to us.” As Augustine says of Plato’s approach, “to philosophize is to love God” (City of God 8.8-9). While Aristotle prized moral virtue, and Plato elevated philosophy, 17th-century educator John Amos Comenius joined them both with piety. “[W]e advance towards our ultimate end in proportion as we pursue Learning, Virtue, and Piety in this world” (Great Didactic 4.9).

But this world is not our ultimate end. If education is a preparation for the whole of life, it must take into account the Kingdom of God. Piety, virtue, and wisdom do lead to a sort of happiness and flourishing in this life, as evidenced by Cicero, Aristotle, and Plato. But, as Plato said, the one who is truly virtuous “will have to endure the lash, the rack, chains, the branding-iron in his eyes, and finally, after every extremity of suffering, he will be crucified” (Republic 2.362). And thus, Aquinas spoke of a twofold beatitude only available by “participation in the Godhead” (ST I-II,q62,a1). What may not seem like human flourishing in this life may still be true flourishing. “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matt 5:10). God’s divine grace in Christ is needed for this journey. So, Peter enjoins all Christians to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Pet 3:18). Unless students ascertain that growth in piety, virtue, and wisdom is empowered by growth in the grace of God, they risk wrecking their souls on their strivings.

Thus, if true vir-tue is properly understood as a life of union with God the Son, who is fully God and fully vir, in whose image we are made, then yes, virtue is the end of education. But if more scaffolding helps, the ends of education may be stated as: piety, virtue, wisdom, and grace. True virtue ultimately concerns sanctification and union with Christ in the context of his church. And education is passing on the culture of that church.

Ravi Scott Jain, is an associate professor of philosophy and liberal studies at the Templeton Honors College, Eastern University, where he co-directs the Master of Arts in Teaching in Classical Education. He is the co-author of The Liberal Arts Tradition and New Natural Philosophy.

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