Ethics as a Work of Charity: Thomas Aquinas and Pagan Virtue (Encountering Traditions) - Softcover

Decosimo, David

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1503600602 ISBN 13: 9781503600607

Publisher: Stanford University Press, 2016

Synopsis

Most of us wonder how to make sense of the apparent moral excellences or virtues of those who have different visions of the good life or different religious commitments than our own. Rather than flattening or ignoring the deep difference between various visions of the good life, as is so often done, this book turns to the medieval Christian theologian Thomas Aquinas to find a better way. Thomas, it argues, shows us how to welcome the outsider and her virtue as an expression rather than a betrayal of one's own distinctive vision. It shows how Thomas, driven by a Christian commitment to charity and especially informed by Augustine, synthesized Augustinian and Aristotelian elements to construct an ethics that does justice―in love―to insiders and outsiders alike. Decosimo offers the first analysis of Thomas on pagan virtue and a reinterpretation of Thomas's ethics while providing a model for our own efforts to articulate a truthful hospitality and do ethics in our pluralist, globalized world.

About this title

About the Author

David Decosimo is Assistant Professor of Theology at Boston University.

Edition details

• Publisher: Stanford University Press
• Publication date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1503600602
• ISBN 13: 9781503600607
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 376