https://youtubetranscript.com/?v=xohDh1OJokk
Hello. Something that’s been bothering me for a while is an inability to have a sensible conversation about modesty. And I think that all of this comes back to the fact that people don’t read Thomas Aquinas, which is maybe something that I would think. And especially a reduction of the notion of modesty to simply being something that is for women’s clothing and women’s presentation. And to hear some Christians talk, you might begin to think that modesty is a virtue for women only and that men don’t have to worry about modesty. And I think if we dive into this classical understanding of what modesty meant, drawing from both scripture and from philosophy, we can fix this. So let’s take a look at what we’re going into here. Virtue. Virtue is a good quality of the mind by which we live righteously of which no one can make bad use. And so my, I think we’ve lost sight of modesty as a virtue, right? We seem to have reduced it to trying to figure out like a series of rules or a series of something that you just kind of have to do. And it doesn’t seem to be particularly helpful to me to reduce it to a series of rules because yeah, it’s just this external obligation upon you. Now a virtue on the other hand is talking about a good quality of the mind. It’s something that perfects your soul, that helps you to live in accordance with the reality that God has given us and to live well of which no one can make bad use. And so it’s always in reference to a transcendent moral order, which I think is a much more appealing idea than is just this set of rules that we live by in order to keep ourselves safe or whatever. Now interestingly enough, and I had to think about this for a while in order to figure it out, St. Thomas Aquinas places virtue, the virtue of modesty underneath the virtue of temperance. You’ve got kind of the four cardinal virtues, prudence, fortitude, justice, and temperance, and underneath all of those he annexes them as smaller parts of a larger virtue scheme. And so temperance is chiefly concerned with those passions that tend towards sensible goods vis-a-vis desire and pleasure and consequently with those sorrows that arise from the absence of those pleasures. And so, you know, Thomas Aquinas sees kind of food, sex, and basic safety as being kind of the principal parts of this virtue of temperance, where when we get these things that we experience bodily pleasure and when we lose them, we experience pain. I think the same word for sorrow and pain is the same word in Latin. He also says that it’s not only those very basic appetites that are covered by the virtue of temperance, but also what we see with our eyes, what is useful to us, what we see as being good under those circumstances. A little later on in the summa, there is a need for a virtue to moderate other lesser matters where moderation is not so difficult. This virtue is called modesty and is annexed to temperance as its principle. And so the idea is that these very basic appetites have a strong pull on us. They tend to grab our attention and focus us in. But there’s also other things which come under temperance which don’t need to have a special virtue for it. You don’t need a special virtue like chastity or fasting and abstinence for those strong appetites. But we can kind of put a bunch of other things under this blanket of modesty. So that’s already a much broader notion of modesty than we’re typically accustomed to. And it’s obviously something that’s going to apply to both men and women at the same time. And so underneath this umbrella of modesty, St. Thomas Aquinas puts humility, studiousness, outward movements of the body, and outward apparel. So humility, of course, is not taking excessive pleasure in our own excellence, but being realistic about our gifts and remembering where those gifts come from. Studiousness, there’s a certain pleasure that comes from learning. Why do you think our little corner of the internet is so addictive? You could just keep on listening to videos and the more you’re able to learn genuinely, the more pleasure you get from that. But it doesn’t have the same kind of visceral grip on us that a nice steak would have. Outward movements of the body, the sort of things that Aquinas puts under outward movements of the body include things like games and playing. So yeah, useful things for us, but obviously not a primordial appetite. And then finally outward apparel. And so obviously the way we dress, the way we present ourselves, the way we behave in public, there’s such a thing as we’re social animals, right? And these appetites that we’ve been given are social appetites. And so we have a desire to receive affirmation from other people, to be socially integrated. And when we get this sort of social integration and affirmation from people, we experience pleasure from that. It feels good to have friends, to spend time with them, to have that kind of affirmation. And so this is where kind of the rub with this difference between modesty being for humans, but it’s expressed differently depending on who you are, right? Because the virtues are the same for everyone. The practice of the virtues might look a little different depending on your station in life and who you are. And so especially in the social dimension, the sort of attention that gives us the most pleasure would be attention from members of the opposite sex, people that we are attracted to. And so we have this instinctual feeling that when we get this attention, it feels good for us. But the way that you go about getting attention from members of the opposite sex is different depending on which sex you’re trying to attract, right? And so we hear all about how status is an important thing for men and that we’re constantly striving for status against each other. You know, all of this Jordan Peterson hierarchy, status hierarchy, and that seems to be, as far as I can tell, kind of that determining factor for a lot of people to get that first look, right? Like a woman given a first look, okay, who is this guy? How does he fit into things, right? And I think there’s biblical reasons and the way the Bible talks about modesty for men is a little different than the way it uses modesty for women. It doesn’t use the word modesty in English or probably in the Greek, but we’ve got that very idea embedded in the scriptures. We’ve got Romans chapter 12, let love be genuine, hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good, love one another with brotherly affection, outdo one another in showing honor. So it’s very different than this worldly striving, trying to go after status. And then obviously men are attracted by the eyes. We tend to look. And so in order to not go after masculine intention, this biblical teaching teaches that women should be dressed modestly. Women should adorn themselves modestly and sensibly and seemingly apparel, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly attire, but by good deeds as befits women who profess religion, right? So, you know, and it’s all about a matter of the heart. Why am I doing this? Why am I being pulled in this direction? Why am I going after this? And you can get caught up in these excessive pleasures in wanting these things too badly. It takes your focus off God. You stop giving glory to God. An extra defect of modesty is always a form of vanity, right? Of not being true to yourself, but behaving in such a way that you will win approbation and good words from other people. And that’s not what our Lord wants for us. Our Lord wants us to have a well-balanced soul and to rely on him above all. So I think if Christians were to imbibe this truth and this way of talking about the biblical doctrine of modesty, it would make it a much more appealing thing rather than feeling like we’re just trying to control women’s bodies or something like that. I think this is, this way of articulating it is immune to those kinds of critiques because it’s trying to control men’s behavior and women’s behavior, trying to control human behavior for the glory of God and the perfection of our own spiritual life. So that’s just something I’ve been thinking about for a while, something I think I might have rediscovered. I hope you enjoyed it. Leave a comment. Tell me what you think.