Greco-Christian stream·The Imitation of Christ·Book I — Admonitions Profitable for the Spiritual Life·Chapter IV. Of Prudence in Action
IV. Of prudence in action
On the slow weighing of action. Non omni verbo credendum — not every word is to be believed; not every counsel followed. The prudential pause before action; consult, weigh, then act — and submit even one's prudence to the better judgment of others when appropriate.
Source context
- Theme
- discernment between rash and deliberate action; the danger of trusting one's own judgment prematurely
- Soul-faculty
- Consciousness Soul
Steiner
not engaged in the GA corpus
Cross-tradition
- Aristotelian phronesisAristotle's phronesis (practical wisdom) in the Nicomachean Ethics similarly identifies the capacity to deliberate rightly before acting as the cardinal virtue of the rational soul's engagement with contingent circumstances.
- Stoic prokopê (moral progress)Stoic teaching on prokopê holds that the advancing student must suspend premature assent (synkatathesis) to appearances and withhold action until the ruling faculty has examined the impression — a structural parallel to the Imitation's counsel against hasty self-directed action.
- Hesychast traditionEastern Christian hesychasm, particularly in Evagrius Ponticus and John Climacus, warns against acting from unexamined logismoi (thoughts), insisting that inner stillness and discernment must precede every outward movement of the will.
Chapter IV. Of Prudence in Action
OF PRUDENCE IN ACTION
We must not trust every word of others or feeling within ourselves, but cautiously and patiently try the matter, whether it be of God. Unhappily we are so weak that we find it easier to believe and speak evil of others, rather than good. But they that are perfect, do not give ready heed to every news-bearer, for they know man's weakness that it is prone to evil and unstable in words.
2This is great wisdom, not to be hasty in action, or stubborn in our own opinions. A part of this wisdom also is not to believe every word we hear, nor to tell others all that we hear, even though we believe it. Take counsel with a man who is wise and of a good conscience; and seek to be instructed by one better than thyself, rather than to follow thine own inventions. A good life maketh a man wise toward God, and giveth him experience in many things. The more humble a man is in himself, and the more obedient towards God, the wiser will he be in all things, and the more shall his soul be at peace.
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