Prudence
PRUDENCE
Is the act of suiting words and actions according to the circumstance of things, or rules of right reason: Cicero thus defines it: “Estrerum expetendarum fugiendarum scientia.”
“The knowledge of what is to be desired or avoided.” Grove thus: “Prudence is an ability of judging what is best in the choice both of ends and means.” Mason thus: “Prudence is a conformity to the rules of reason, truth, and decency, at all times, and in all circumstances. It differs from wisdom only in degree; wisdom being nothing but a more consummate habit of prudence; and prudence a lower degree or weaker habit of wisdom.” It is divided into,
1. Christian prudence, which directs to the pursuit of that blessedness which the Gospel discovers by the use of Gospel means.
2. Moral prudence has for its end peace and satisfaction of mind in this world, and the greatest happiness after death.
3. Civil prudence is the knowledge of what ought to be done in order to secure the outward happiness of life, consisting in prosperity, liberty, &c.
4. Monastic, relating to any circumstances in which a man is not charged with the care of others.
5. OEconomical prudence regards the conduct of a family.
6. Political refers to the good government of a state. The idea of prudence, says one, includes due consultation: that is, concerning such things as demand consultation in a right manner, and for a competent time, that the resolution taken up may be neither too precipitate nor too slow; and a faculty of discerning proper means when they occur. To the perfection of prudence these three things are farther required, viz. a natural sagacity, presence of mind, or a ready turn of thought; and experience. Plato styles prudence the leading virtue; and Cicero observes, “that not one of the virtues can want prudence, ” which is certainly most true, since without prudence to guide them, piety would degenerate into superstition, zeal into bigotry, temperance into austerity, courage into rashness, and justice itself into folly.
See Watts’s Ser. ser. 28; Grove’s Moral Phil. vol. 2: ch. 2; Mason’s Christian Mor. vol. 1: ser. 4; Evans’s Christ. Temper, ser. 38.
Fuente: Theological Dictionary
Prudence
(Latin prudentia, contracted from providentia, seeing ahead).
One of the four cardinal virtues. Definitions of it are plentiful from Aristotle down. His “recta ratio agibilium” has the merits of brevity and inclusiveness. Father Rickaby aptly renders it as “right reason applied to practice”. A fuller description and one more serviceable is this: an intellectual habit enabling us to see in any given juncture of human affairs what is virtuous and what is not, and how to come at the one and avoid the other. It is to be observed that prudence, whilst possessing in some sort an empire over all the moral virtues, itself aims to perfect not the will but the intellect in its practical decisions. Its function is to point out which course of action is to be taken in any round of concrete circumstances. It indicates which, here and now, is the golden mean wherein the essence of all virtue lies. It has nothing to do with directly willing the good it discerns. That is done by the particular moral virtue within whose province it falls. Prudence, therefore, has a directive capacity with regard to the other virtues. It lights the way and measures the arena for their exercise. The insight it confers makes one distinguish successfully between their mere semblance and their reality. It must preside over the eliciting of all acts proper to any one of them at least if they be taken in their formal sense. Thus, without prudence bravery becomes foolhardiness; mercy sinks into weakness, and temperance into fanaticism. But it must not be forgotten that prudence is a virtue adequately distinct from the others, and not simply a condition attendant upon their operation. Its office is to determine for each in practice those circumstances of time, place, manner, etc. which should be observed, and which the Scholastics comprise under the term medium rationis. So it is that whilst it qualifies immediately the intellect and not the will, it is nevertheless rightly styled a moral virtue.
This is because the moral agent finds in it, if not the eliciting, at any rate the directive principle of virtuous actions. According to St. Thomas (II-II, Q. xlvii, a. 8) it is its function to do three things: to take counsel, i.e. to cast about for the means suited in the particular case under consideration to reach the end of any one moral virtue; to judge soundly of the fitness of the means suggested; and, finally, to command their employment. If these are to be done well they necessarily exclude remissness and lack of concern; they demand the use of such diligence and care that the resultant act can be described as prudent, in spite of whatever speculative error may have been at the bottom of the process. Readiness in finding out and ability in adapting means to an end does not always imply prudence. If the end happens to be a vicious one, a certain adroitness or sagacity may be exhibited in its pursuit. This, however, according to St. Thomas, will only deserve to be called false prudence and is identical with that referred to in Rom., viii, 6, “the wisdom of the flesh is death”. Besides the prudence which is the fruit of training and experience, and is developed into a stable habit by repeated acts, there is another sort termed “infused”. This is directly bestowed by God’s bounty. It is inseparable from the condition of supernatural charity and so is to be found only in those who are in the state of grace. Its scope of course is to make provision of what is necessary for eternal salvation. Although acquired prudence considered as a principle of operation is quite compatible with sin in the agent, still it is well to note that vice obscures or at times utterly beclouds its judgment. Thus it is true that prudence and the other moral virtues are mutually interdependent. Imprudence in so far as it implies a want of obligatory prudence and not a mere gap in practical mentality is a sin, not however always necessarily distinct from the special wicked indulgence which it happens to accompany. If it proceeds to the length of formal scorn of the Divine utterances on the point, it will be a mortal sin.
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RICKABY, The Moral Teaching of St. Thomas (London, 1896); LEHMKUHL, Theologia Moralis (Freiburg, 1887); RICKABY, Ethics and Natural Law (London, 1908); St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica (Turin, 1885).
JOSEPH F. DELANEY Transcribed by Robert B. Olson Offered to Almighty God for the gift of prudence for all men and women, especially for the leaders of His Church and of nations.
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XIICopyright © 1911 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, June 1, 1911. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., CensorImprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Prudence
is the act of suiting words and actions according to the circumstances of things, or rules of right reason. Cicero thus defines it: Est rerum expetendarum vel fulgiendarum scientia the knowledge of what is to be desired or avoided. Grove thus: Prudence is an ability of judging what is best in the choice both of ends and means. Mason thus: Prudence is a conformity to the rules of reason, truth, and decency, at all times and in all circumstances. It differs from wisdom only in degree; wisdom being nothing but a more consummate habit of prudence, and prudence a lower degree or weaker habit of wisdom. It is divided into,
1, Christian prudence, which directs to the pursuit of that blessedness which the Gospel discovers by the use of Gospel means;
2, moral prudence, which has for its end peace and satisfaction of mind in this world, and the greatest happiness after death;
3, civil prudence, which is the knowledge of what ought to be done in order to secure the outward happiness of life, consisting in prosperity, liberty, etc.;
4, monastic, relating to any circumstances in which a man is not charged with the care of others;
5, economical prudence, which regards the conduct of a family;
6, political, which refers to the good government of a state.
The idea of prudence, says one, includes due consultation that is, concerning such things as demand consultation in a right manner and for a competent time, that the resolution taken up may be neither too precipitate nor too slow; and a faculty of discerning proper means when they occur. To the perfection of prudence these three things are further required, viz. a natural sagacity; presence of mind, or a ready turn of thought; and experience. Plato styles prudence the leading virtue; and Cicero observes that not one of the virtues can want prudence; which is certainly most true, since, without prudence to guide them, piety would degenerate into superstition, zeal into bigotry, temperance into austerity, courage into rashness, and justice itself into folly. In a comparison of prudence and morality, the former has been called the vowel, the latter the consonant. The latter cannot be uttered (reduced to practice) but by menans of the former. See Watts, Sermons, ser. 28; Grove, Moral Philos. vol. ii, ch. ii; Mason, Christian Morals, vol. i, ser. 4; Evans, Christan Temper, ser. 38; Coleridge, Aids to Reflection, i, 13, 21 sq.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Prudence
PRUDENCE.This term has a wider and a narrower reference. It may denote practical saga city, the right choice of means to ends, clear-sighted forecasting of consequences and the shaping of conduct in accordance therewith. This would bring under review the whole of Jesus conduct, and His methods of teaching, with their adaptation to the ends of His mission. In its more common use, prudence refers to the more self-regarding acts. It is the narrower reference that we consider.
1. Jesus conduct.In the earlier part of His ministry Jesus withdrew from the approach of danger. When He came from the temptation in the wilderness to take up His mission, hearing that Herod had put John in prison, He departed from Jordan to Galilee (Mat 4:12). Galilee was within the dominion of Herod Antipas, but it was remote, away from the palace where John was imprisoned, away also from the place where John had baptized, and whither the crowds had come. In Galilee He would be more withdrawn from Herods observation. Later on, when opposition was growing, and the Pharisees and Herodians were taking counsel together against Him, He withdrew for a time to the sea (Mat 12:14, Mar 3:6). And when He heard of the execution of John, He retired with His disciples to the desert (Mat 14:13, Mar 6:31). The Fourth Gospel also gives instances of His shunning Judaea when passions were stirred there against Him (Joh 7:1; Joh 7:10; Joh 10:39-40; Joh 11:8; Joh 11:54). What relation had these acts of prudence to Jesus sense of duty and of trust in the care of the Father? He shunned danger then for His works sake. His hour was not yet come (Joh 7:6). Then life, and not death, was the necessity of His mission. Again, Jesus taught the most absolute trust in the guarding care of the Father. Not a sparrow falls to the ground without Him (Mat 10:29). Should He not then have committed Himself to the Father: could Herod defeat the mission of the Messiah, the Son who alone could reveal the Father? In the wilderness Jesus recognized that thought to be a temptation of Satan (Mat 4:5-7). God has given us minds to look before and after; and to run into avoidable peril needlessly is to tempt God. Carefulness, even amid duty, is lowliness way of escape from presumption. Jesus recognized that He had to accept the ordinary conditions of human life, and guard Himself, for His works sake, from the confinement that would hinder it, or premature death that might destroy it. But there is both in the Synoptics and in the Fourth Gospel a beautiful reconciliation of Jesus prudence with duty and faith. When He withdrew to the desert on hearing of Johns death, the crowds followed Him; and Jesus, seeing them as sheep without a shepherd, had compassion on them, and began to teach them (Mar 6:34). The death of Lazarus makes Him return to Judaea, whence He had prudently withdrawn Himself (Joh 11:4-8). The emergence of a duty, an appeal from circumstances to His compassion, is a call from the Father, and then Jesus enters upon danger secure in the Fathers guarding providence. When a man is doing the duty clearly laid down for him at the moment, he is walking in the day, and there is no stumbling for him (Joh 11:9).
Did Jesus sin against that earlier spirit of prudence in His last visit to Jerusalem? He knew that He was going into danger. And He went thither not quietly, but making a public demonstration. He rode up to the city on an asss colt as the Messiah, with an enthusiastic crowd strewing palm branches and singing hosannas to the Son of David. That would rouse the Pharisees, who regarded His claim as blasphemous, and the Sadducees, who might tremble for the peace and order of the city. He went to the Temple, and drove out with a scourge of small cords them that bought and sold in the holy place. And when at last Pharisees and Sadducees were united against Him, He uttered in the public hearing His invectives against the hypocrisy of scribes and Pharisees. Jesus has been blamed for thereby running upon death. But (1) it was necessary that He should openly make His claim to be the Messiah. He had not done so at first, for He did not desire any mere political following. It was to spiritual believers, won by His preaching of the Father, who felt that He, the meek and lowly One, had the words of eternal life, that He made known the fact that He was Gods Messiah. But it was necessary that the claim should ultimately be proclaimed, after all His gospel had been declared, that Israels rejection of Him should be their rejection of Him as Messiah. (2) It was necessary also that the Lord of mans life should lay bare in judgment the evil of Pharisaism, the master sin which dwells in the Temple, serving the very altar (see Perfection of Jesus, p. 337). But the invectives came only after His enemies were banded together and had decreed His death. The hour was striking when He uttered the words that maddened His foes. He chose His time with forethought and sagacity. (3) The hour of sacrifice had come. This death was no way of escape from intolerable difficulties (Renan, F. Newman). It was the end foreseen from the beginning. It lies at the back of the victory over temptation in the wilderness when He put aside the suggestion to use methods of popularity. Its shadow is over the words which He spake to the Pharisees, when early in His ministry they questioned Him about His disciples and fasting: The days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days (Luk 5:35). And as soon as Peter had made his confession of belief in Him as Messiah, Jesus began to prepare His disciples for sufferings and death (Mar 8:30-31). That is clear evidence that though His disciples had never dreamed of the tragic ending, yet it had long been in their Masters thought. The joyousness and serenity of the early Galilaean ministry is no proof that Jesus dreamed then of success; it only proves how absolute was His conquest over all self-assertion and all natural shrinkings of the flesh. Death was His goal, seen from the beginning. Loves kingdom could be set up only by loves absolute devotion and self-sacrifice. The Father had laid upon Him the task of laying down His life for the sheep. And when Jesus went up to Jerusalem, He recognized that this His hour was come. He read the signs of the times (Mat 16:3).
2. Jesus teaching.His teaching follows the lines of His conduct. As in His conduct, there is a prudential side. He counsels men to lay up treasure in heaven, for that treasure abides (Mat 6:19-20, Luk 12:33). He bids them count the cost of discipleship (Luk 14:25-33). In the parables of the Unjust Steward and the Ten Virgins, He expresses His surprise at the lack of forethought and consideration on the part of the children of light. (See Foolishness). And He bids them pluck out their right eye, cut off their hand or foot, whichever it be that gives offence, and enter maimed into the Kingdom of God rather than perish (Mar 9:43-49, Mat 5:29-30). This has been called the distinctive principle of Christian asceticism (Gore); and this may be granted, with the proviso that such asceticism has nothing to do with self-appointed penances or mortifications, but only with the self-denial which wise self-knowledge brings amid the inflow of life upon one. But it is rather Christian prudence, as St. Augustine has defined it, love making wise distinction between what hinders and what helps itself: it is a vivid commentary on the prayer, Lead us not into temptation.
In Jesus teaching, as in His life, these prudential maxims are always subservient to the ultimate principle of conduct, loves paradox, Whosoever will save his life shall lose it, and whosover will lose his life for my sake shall find it (Mat 16:25, Luk 17:33, Joh 12:25). Self-forgetfulness through loving service of God enriches the spirit with lifes treasures of wisdom and joy. That is the secret hid from the wise and prudent and revealed unto babes (Luk 10:20-21).
Literature.W. M. Sinclair, The Servant of Christ. (1892), 102; H. P. Liddon, Sermons on Some Words of Christ (1892), 191; S. A. Brooke, The Ship of the Soul (1898), 4; D. T. Young, The Crimson Book (1903), 157; W. C. E. Newbolt, The Cardinal Virtues (1903), 25.
Richard Glaister.
Fuente: A Dictionary Of Christ And The Gospels
Prudence
General references
Job 34:3-4; Psa 39:1; Psa 112:5; Pro 6:1-2; Pro 8:12; Pro 11:13; Pro 11:15; Pro 11:29; Pro 12:8; Pro 12:16; Pro 12:23; Pro 13:16; Pro 14:8; Pro 14:15-16; Pro 14:18; Pro 15:5; Pro 15:22; Pro 16:20-21; Pro 17:2; Pro 17:18; Pro 18:15-16; Pro 19:2; Pro 20:5; Pro 20:16; Pro 20:18; Pro 21:5; Pro 21:20; Pro 21:23; Pro 22:3; Pro 22:7; Pro 22:26-27; Pro 23:1-3; Pro 23:9; Pro 24:6; Pro 24:27; Pro 25:8-10; Pro 26:4-5; Pro 27:12; Pro 29:8; Pro 29:11; Ecc 7:16-17; Ecc 8:2-3; Ecc 10:1; Ecc 10:10; Hos 14:9; Amo 5:13; Mat 5:25-26; Mat 7:6; Luk 14:28-32; Rom 14:16; 1Co 6:12; 1Co 10:23; 1Co 8:8-13; 1Co 10:25-33; Col 4:5; Jas 1:19 Diplomacy; Gentleness; Wisdom
Instances of:
– Jacob:
b In his conduct toward Esau
Gen 32:3-21
b Toward his sons, after Dinah’s defilement
Gen 34:5; Gen 34:30
– Joseph, in the affairs of Egypt
Gen 41:33-57
– Jethro’s advice to Moses
Exo 18:17-23
– The Israelites, in the threatened war with the two and one-half tribes
Jos 22:10-34
– Saul, in not slaying the Jabesh-Gileadites
1Sa 11:13
– David:
b In his conduct with Saul
1Sa 18:5-30
b In overthrowing Ahithophel’s counsel
2Sa 15:33-37
– Abigail, in averting David’s wrath
1Sa 25:18-31
– Achish, in dismissing David
1Sa 29:1-11
– Elijah, in his flight from Jezebel
1Ki 19:3-4
– Rehoboam’s counsellors
1Ki 12:7
– Jehoram, in suspecting a Syrian stratagem
2Ki 7:12-13
– Nehemiah, in conduct of affairs at Jerusalem
Neh 2:12-16; Neh 4:13-23
– Daniel
Dan 1:8-14
– Certain elders of Israel
Jer 26:17-23
– Of Jesus:
b In charging those who were healed not to advertise His miracles
Mat 9:30; Mat 16:20; Mar 3:12; Mar 5:43; Mar 7:36; Mar 8:30; Mar 9:9
b Going to the feast secretly
Joh 7:10
b In walking »no more openly«
Joh 11:54; Joh 12:36
b In avoiding His enemies
Mat 12:14-16; Mar 3:7; Joh 11:47-54
– Joseph, in his conduct toward Mary
Mat 1:19
– Peter, in escaping Herod
Act 12:17
– Paul:
b In circumcising Timothy
Act 16:3
b In performing temple rites
Act 21:20-26
b In setting the Jewish sects on each other
Act 23:6
b Avoiding suspicion in administering the gifts of the churches
2Co 8:20
b His lack of, in his persistence in going to Jerusalem despite the warnings of the Spirit and his friends
Act 20:22-25; Act 20:37-38; Act 21:10-14
– Paul and Barnabas, in escaping persecution
Act 14:6
– Paul and Silas, in escaping from Berea
Act 17:10-15
– The town clerk of Ephesus, in averting a riot
Act 19:29-41 Diplomacy
Fuente: Nave’s Topical Bible
Prudence
Pro 8:12 (a) This is one of the titles of the Lord JESUS CHRIST. He is called by many wonderful names in the Scripture, and each name represents an attitude or a characteristic or a position which is true of Him, and of no one else. The other name associated with Him in this passage is “Wisdom.”