Dr. Joel Biermann (Professor of Systematic Theology at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis) has written an important book entitled A Case for Character: Towards a Lutheran Virtue Ethics. I should begin by defining virtue ethics. You may have taken a course in Christian ethics that dealt with issues like abortion, euthanasia, just war, and capital punishment. Virtue ethics, on the other hand, is more interested in the routine, ordinary habits and practices that people make in daily life. Virtue ethics assumes that humans have a telos (purpose for which we are made), and that certain practices, habits, skills, and even communities will help us attain this telos better than others. Biermann argues that Lutheran theology, properly understood, is well-suited for producing people of virtue, although many argue that just the opposite is true.