These lectures expound the place of good works in the salvation of the Christian, the nature of virtues and vices, and the traditional means for cultivating virtue in the Christian life. St. John of Damascus in his text On the Virtues and the Vices in the Philokalia writes that “Every man is said to be made in the likeness of God as regards his…imitation of God through virtues and godlike actions.” The study and cultivation of virtue is the quest both to love God and also to become a true human being.