What does it mean to live well in morally incoherent times? Alan Noble joins the show to discuss his new book To Live Well: Practical Wisdom for Moving Through Chaotic Times, which uses the four cardinal virtues and three theological virtues as a framework for navigating choice paralysis, the loneliness epidemic, and contemporary anxiety. The conversation covers why courage and temperance feel especially urgent today, the difficulty of writing on justice, hoping all things for political opponents, the sunk cost fallacy in vocational discernment, and why friendship requires intentional cultivation. Grace, not optimization, grounds the virtuous life. Hosted by Derek Rishmawy, Alastair Roberts, and James Wood.
—
Get the Spiritual Formation for the Family ebook for free at http://mereorthodoxy.com/family.
Mere Fidelity is a podcast from Mere Orthodoxy and is listener-supported. If you would like to support this work, become a Mere Orthodoxy Member today at http://mereorthodoxy.com/membership.
Get 30% of the Baker Book of the Month, Classical Theism: A Christian Introduction, by going to: http://bakerbookhouse.com/pages/mere-fidelity
Apply for fall 2026 admission to Beeson Divinity School's MDiv and be considered for a full-tuition scholarship. https://bit.ly/beesonscholarships
—
Chapter Markers
- 00:00 - Welcome and introductions
- 00:52 - The pitch for To Live Well
- 03:30 - Diagnosis: alienation or anomie?
- 06:30 - The four cardinal and three theological virtues
- 08:14 - What is a virtue?
- 10:11 - Office hours and the paradox of choice
- 14:54 - Fortitude in an anxious age
- 18:41 - The sunk cost fallacy and pivoting well
- 21:40 - The heap of broken images and Christian wholeness
- 25:07 - Hoping all things for political opponents
- 29:36 - The hardest chapter to write: justice
- 32:17 - What pastors and churches can do
- 34:40 - Grace, virtue, and the Protestant hesitation
- 38:55 - Friendship as the practice of love
- 44:31 - Closing thoughts
