Ask of Old Paths: Medieval Virtues and Vices for a Whole and Holy Life
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Traditional Christian virtue and vices like abstinence, gluttony, and sloth make many of us bored or uncomfortable. At their best, these words sound dead or confusing, like incomplete fossils that belong to a distant past awkwardly enshrined in a museum. At worst, they signify a prejudiced past, when these words were wielded like weapons.
Yet in medieval writing, the language of the virtues and vices was powerful, lively, and delightfully weird. Patience is described as a peppercorn. Unicorns preach chastity. Knightly virtues fend off devious vices by throwing roses at them. In medieval books, words like avarice and meekness meant different things and carried different weight than they do today. And great medieval preachers and poets taught the virtues as crucial to what it meant to live a life of holiness, right alongside the Lord's Prayer and the Creed.
Ask of Old Paths by Grace Hamman meditates upon those strange and wonderful word-pictures and explanations of virtues and vices found in medieval traditions of poetry, sermons, and treatises long confined to dusty corners of the library. It focuses on the ancient tradition of virtue language called the Seven Capital Virtue Remedies: pride and humility, envy and love, wrath and meekness, avarice and mercy, sloth and fortitude, gluttony and abstinence, lust and chastity.
In accessible and thoughtful chapters, scholar and writer Grace Hamman shows how learning about these pairs of medieval virtues and vices can help us reevaluate our own washed out and insipid moral vocabulary in modernity. Our imaginations for the good life are expanded; our longing for sanctification sharpens. Old ideas can give us new fire in our practice of the virtue--and in that practice, we imitate Jesus and become more human.
Hardcover : 224 pages
Item Weight : 11.3 ounces
Dimensions : 5.6 x 0.84 x 8.6 inches
**We ship ONLY within the US and its territories. NO international shipping available.
Standard shipping (delivery in 3-8 business days)
$3.99 on orders from $0 - $19.99 via USPS Media Mail
$5.99 on orders from $20 - $48.99 via USPS Media Mail
Free Shipping on orders over $49 via USPS Media Mail
Customers in Puerto Rico and Hawaii, please note that Standard Shipping can take up to 21 business days.
Need your order sooner?
Express shipping (delivery in 3-5 business days)
$8.99 on orders from $0 - $19.99 via Priority Mail
$13.99 on orders from $20 - $48.99 via Priority Mail
$19.99 on orders from $49-$99.99 via Priority Mail
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Please allow 10 days for your order to arrive. You will receive a tracking number for your order via email. To keep prices low we ship via the US Postal Service. This means sometimes you have to wait a little longer to get your order but it's always worth it! |
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Returns are easy, simply contact us and send your item to our returns center for fast processing. We'll get you a replacement or refund in a snap! |
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You get a full 30 days to return your item to us. If it doesn't fit, it breaks, you've changed your mind or for no reason whatsoever simply send it back to us and we'll cheerfully refund you 100% of your order. |
|
![]() |
Returns are easy, simply contact us for a returns number and send your item to our returns centre for fast processing. We'll get you a replacement or refund in a snap! |
|
![]() |
In the unlikely event that you find your item cheaper at another online store, just let us know and we'll beat the competitor's pricing hands-down. |
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![]() |
We insist that you love everything you buy from us. If you're unhappy for any reason whatsoever, just let us know and we'll bend over backwards to make things right again. |
|
![]() |
Ordering from Biblestore is 100% safe and secure so you can rest easy. Your personal details are never shared, sold or rented to anyone either. |
Traditional Christian virtue and vices like abstinence, gluttony, and sloth make many of us bored or uncomfortable. At their best, these words sound dead or confusing, like incomplete fossils that belong to a distant past awkwardly enshrined in a museum. At worst, they signify a prejudiced past, when these words were wielded like weapons.
Yet in medieval writing, the language of the virtues and vices was powerful, lively, and delightfully weird. Patience is described as a peppercorn. Unicorns preach chastity. Knightly virtues fend off devious vices by throwing roses at them. In medieval books, words like avarice and meekness meant different things and carried different weight than they do today. And great medieval preachers and poets taught the virtues as crucial to what it meant to live a life of holiness, right alongside the Lord's Prayer and the Creed.
Ask of Old Paths by Grace Hamman meditates upon those strange and wonderful word-pictures and explanations of virtues and vices found in medieval traditions of poetry, sermons, and treatises long confined to dusty corners of the library. It focuses on the ancient tradition of virtue language called the Seven Capital Virtue Remedies: pride and humility, envy and love, wrath and meekness, avarice and mercy, sloth and fortitude, gluttony and abstinence, lust and chastity.
In accessible and thoughtful chapters, scholar and writer Grace Hamman shows how learning about these pairs of medieval virtues and vices can help us reevaluate our own washed out and insipid moral vocabulary in modernity. Our imaginations for the good life are expanded; our longing for sanctification sharpens. Old ideas can give us new fire in our practice of the virtue--and in that practice, we imitate Jesus and become more human.
Hardcover : 224 pages
Item Weight : 11.3 ounces
Dimensions : 5.6 x 0.84 x 8.6 inches
**We ship ONLY within the US and its territories. NO international shipping available.
Standard shipping (delivery in 3-8 business days)
$3.99 on orders from $0 - $19.99 via USPS Media Mail
$5.99 on orders from $20 - $48.99 via USPS Media Mail
Free Shipping on orders over $49 via USPS Media Mail
Customers in Puerto Rico and Hawaii, please note that Standard Shipping can take up to 21 business days.
Need your order sooner?
Express shipping (delivery in 3-5 business days)
$8.99 on orders from $0 - $19.99 via Priority Mail
$13.99 on orders from $20 - $48.99 via Priority Mail
$19.99 on orders from $49-$99.99 via Priority Mail
![]() |
Please allow 10 days for your order to arrive. You will receive a tracking number for your order via email. To keep prices low we ship via the US Postal Service. This means sometimes you have to wait a little longer to get your order but it's always worth it! |
|
![]() |
Returns are easy, simply contact us and send your item to our returns center for fast processing. We'll get you a replacement or refund in a snap! |
![]() |
You get a full 30 days to return your item to us. If it doesn't fit, it breaks, you've changed your mind or for no reason whatsoever simply send it back to us and we'll cheerfully refund you 100% of your order. |
|
![]() |
Returns are easy, simply contact us for a returns number and send your item to our returns centre for fast processing. We'll get you a replacement or refund in a snap! |
|
![]() |
In the unlikely event that you find your item cheaper at another online store, just let us know and we'll beat the competitor's pricing hands-down. |
|
![]() |
We insist that you love everything you buy from us. If you're unhappy for any reason whatsoever, just let us know and we'll bend over backwards to make things right again. |
|
![]() |
Ordering from Biblestore is 100% safe and secure so you can rest easy. Your personal details are never shared, sold or rented to anyone either. |






