R: Reclaim Aretē

The Greek word aretē (ἀρετή) can mean “virtue,” “excellence,” or “distinction.” But in much of the literature of ancient Greece, particularly Homer, aretē also meant “manliness,” “valor,” or “toughness.” This connection between virtue and manliness carries over to Latin, where virtus, meaning “virtue,” directly derives from vir, meaning “man.” In much of ancient literature and culture, the physical and the moral virtues are one. For Homer, virtue is largely reducible to strength on the battlefield: Achilles is “superior in all virtues [aretai]: both in swiftness of foot and in fighting” (Iliad 15.642). The question we pose is whether the ancients were right in connecting the physical and moral virtues. I hope that in answering this question we may also address the deeper question of what striving for excellence ought to look like in the conservative life. Is to be excellent to have wealth, success, happiness, beauty, strength, as the ancients and the moderns seem to agree? Or is excellence something else?

The affirmative may argue that physical and moral excellence very often go hand in hand. If our bodies are weak and flaccid, how will our minds be robust and our souls stand strong? Our bodies should be temples of the Holy Spirit, trained to athletic excellence. Moreover, we should strive for excellence in everything we do. We should not settle for A-minuses or second place. The best way to show the world that the way of virtue and truth is best is by being the best at work, school, and home. The affirmative may side with Peter, who is the only New Testament author to consistently use the word aretē. Aretē never appears in the Gospels and only once in the rest of Scripture, but Peter employs it four times in his relatively small corpus, twice to refer to God’s excellence and twice to refer to the excellence that Christians should strive for. God’s excellence should inspire us to be excellent in all things, and to encourage excellence in others.

The negative may take a more Pauline approach, arguing that moral excellence is a by-product of right belief and consistent practice, not a by-product of grinding at the gym. Tenderness, not toughness, is what we ought to reclaim. Our models should not be the muscular Achilles and the rapacious Agamemnon but the ancient ascetics and modern martyrs, whose bodies are weak with hunger and deprivation but whose souls are strong as steel. Venerating lofty physical standards of manliness and femininity only results in inferiority complexes and eating disorders. Moreover, relentlessly pushing ourselves to be the best at everything, to excel on all fronts, will simply result in bitter disappointment when we inevitably fail. Even 2 1 Pet 2:9, 2 Pet 1:3, 5. 1 The only other occurrence of aretē in the entire NT is by Paul in Philemon 4:8. Homer recognizes that chance and time catch up to every man and woman, and the strongest body will wither away, or be defeated by one stronger still. Even Christ’s resurrected body bore the stigmata, the marks of his physical frailty.