VIRTUE ASSIGNMENT
Essay Assignment for BTh/CTh
How important are virtue and character in Christian ethics?
Lecture 7 will cover material relevant to this essay.
Introductory Reading
Dictionaries:
· "Character", IVP Dictionary, Chpt 10, Part One, pp 65-70.
· "Virtue, Virtues", IVP Dictionary, p 881
· "Virtue" in SCM Dictionary, pp 648-50. This article is by Hauerwas, the main spokesperson for Christian virtue ethics.
· "Virtue" in Hastings, Mason & Pyper, Oxford Companion to Christian Thought, pp 741-3.
· You may wish to also look at cross-referenced articles and biblical texts cited in these dictionary articles.
Discussions:
· Neil Messer, SCM StudyGuide to Christian Ethics, pp 121-40 offers an introduction with studies relating to healthcare rationing.
· Stephen Holmgren, Ethics After Easter, pp 103-18
· Kyle D. Fedler, Exploring Christian Ethics, chpt 3, pp 33-48.
· David Wells, Losing our Virtue, pp 13-19
Scripture
A good discussion based on the beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount is in Stassen & Gushee, Kingdom Ethics, chpt 2, pp 32-54.
Tradition
Outside the Christian tradition Aristotle's Nichomachean Ethics[Full text on-line] is very influential (especially Books 1-4). A basic introduction to this is Vardy & Grosch, Puzzle of Ethics, Chpt 3, pp 19-34
The classical Christian text if you wish to do more detailed work is Aquinas Summa Theologica II/I q49ff, II/II - Treatise on Habits
Contemporary
- An overview of virtue ethics can be found in Jean Porter, 'Virtue Ethics' in Gill (ed)Cambridge Companion to Christian Ethics, pp96-108. She has also written a chapter in Meilaender and Weperhowski, Oxford Handbook of Theological Ethics, pp 205-19.
- The major Christian writer is Stanley Hauerwas whose Peaceable Kingdom is on the general reading list and highly recommended. His 'Toward an Ethics of Character' in Vision & Virtue, pp48-67 is a good introduction.
- Hauerwas' work is studied in Sam Wells, Transforming Fate into Destiny, where pp 1-39 and 126-40 are key.
- Hauerwas is critiqued by Hays in The Moral Vision, pp 253-66.
- Alasdair MacIntyre is another highly influential writer (especially his After Virtue ) though not explicitly Christian or theological. His work is summarised in Vardy & Grosch, Puzzle of Ethics, Chpt 8, pp94-107.
- Catechism of the Catholic Church – Part 3, Article 7 [pp399-407] helpfully summarises modern Roman Catholic thinking
- For a fascinating and at points entertaining account of Catholic and papal teaching see Herbert McCabe 'Manuals and rule-books' in Wilkins (ed), Understanding Veritatis Splendor, pp 61-8
- O'Donovan, Oliver, Resurrection & Moral Order, Chpt 10, pp 204-25 offers an evangelical Anglican perspective [but not always an easy read]
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