Virtues [Hardcover]

Virtues are values underlying human practices. We are at the dawn of a new era, an era of global ethics requiring some core virtues. These core virtues are hospitality, co-living, respect, tolerance, and communality. Book 1 treats the virtue of hospitality that is a right and a duty of all, and which is still to be discovered and practiced unconditionally. Book 2 deals with the virtues of co-living, respect, and tolerance, which are important virtues if the peoples of the earth are to live together in peace in our common home, the planet Earth. Finally, Book 3 deals with the virtue of communality; this is a very important virtue because a large part of humanity experiences hunger and thirst, which is something scandalous in this day and age, and which demonstrates a lack of humanity, because we possess the technical means and political framework to resolve this situation. If these core virtues become a reality, they will transform human practices into something beneficial both to human beings and to the planet Earth, our common home. Leonardo Boff touches on a theme which is central to human flourishing and is a timely reminder of the need for the implementation of the practical politics of human connectedness. The exploration of the necessary processes to achieve hospitality, co-living, respect, tolerance, and communality is a key challenge of our age, and this book makes a positive contribution to that goal. --Christopher Rowland Dean Ireland Professor of the Exegesis of Holy Scripture University of Oxford Leonardo Boff spins the spirituality of St. Francis into an ecological, cosmic, political--albeit human--vision of what our world could become if we are willing to practice hospitality, co-living, tolerance, respect, and feasting together. As a pastor whose church is earth-friendly and becoming green with solar panels, I found in Boff's Virtues a credible, sustainable spirituality for all peoples of faith to meet the challenges of th twenty-first century. l³n