Broken images and the path of restoration

John Woods reviews To Live Well by Alan Noble.

In the past decade I have come to appreciate the work of Alan Noble, who is an associate professor of English at Oklahoma Baptist University and a fellow at the Keller Centre for Cultural Apologetics. He writes with a firm grasp of Scripture, the human condition and our cultural moment. This book speaks realistically about life as it is, but is also full of hope.

“For most of us, somewhere along the path to adulthood comes the unsettling realisation that most people are winging it.” So starts Noble in a book for people who are not sure what they are doing!

Using a line from T.S. Eliot’s epic poem, The Waste Land, Noble says that many people have lives that are made up of “broken images”. These are fragments of meaning that don’t seem to make up anything that is coherent and whole. Where do we turn to at such a time as this? Noble suggests that many of us turn to “self-help” gurus, when what we need is true wisdom that will help us put the whole of life into perspective.

Noble says that his goal is to “walk through the essentials of life”. He does this by walking through seven cardinal virtues. Noble acknowledges his debt to early 20th-century Catholic author Josef Pieper’s writings: The Cardinal Virtues and Faith, Hope and Love. Along the way Noble garners wisdom from more familiar faces like Augustine and Calvin. Noble helps us piece together the “broken images” to construct a beautiful picture like a stained-glass window.

The seven virtues are: Choosing Decisively, Acting Justly, Suffering Steadfastly, Living Moderately, Believing Soundly, Hoping Resolutely, and Living Rightly.

It was helpful to be taken slowly but steadily on a guided walk through these virtues and seeing how they could be built into the rhythm of my life.

“The virtues demand much of us, but they give so much more. In a time of uncertainty, they give us a way of moving through the world with confidence.”

Best done together

Noble is honest and realistic in writing about virtues that require effort to attain and develop. In his conclusion he reminds readers of the importance of not seeing this as a solo walk, but one that requires others in a community around us. In this way we can walk with others to be a collective instrument of change.

Noble also reminds us of failure and grace. Any attempt to walk the walk of the virtues will involve some missteps, diversions and delays, but we are also accompanied by the Lord, who gives us “grace to help in time of need”.

Grace helps us to remember that walking a virtuous path is more than a matter of “technique” that gives the secret of self-mastery. Instead, our spiritual work is rooted in the finished work of Christ and is sustained in this anxious age by the message that we are heading toward our glorious inheritance in Christ.

TO LIVE WELL: Practical Wisdom for Moving Through Chaotic Times
By Alan Noble
IVP. 200 pages. £18.46
ISBN 978 1 514 002 247