Abstract

The issues treated – the good of the concrete living being, the virtuous end, the features of the virtues as intentions, nature, habitus, and actions, the polyphony of the virtues, the mean, the link between the virtues and the Absolute in God – indicate numerous points of analogy between Thomas and Guardini. Guardini is not independent of Thomas in terms of his discussion of the virtues, despite the fact that he does not follow the latter’s presentation in a strictly exemplary fashion. The aspect which indicates this closeness most of all is fundamentally the question of the concreteness of the good, or, put in other words in the language of Guardini, of the concrete living being. His strongest point of contact with Thomas lies basically in his sustaining the view that, if man does not grow in his life in acquiring the virtues, then he will not be able to give fulfilment to his own life. All of this is not an absolute end in itself; since our final fulfilment is always a fulfilment in God, both for Guardini as for Thomas, it is fulfilment in the action of grace in this life and in the beatitudo of the final encounter with God.