Volume 8, Number 2 June 2019 Virtues, Politics, And
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
VOLUME 8, NUMBER 2 JUNE 2019 VIRTUES, POLITICS, AND ECONOMICS Journal of Moral Theology is published semiannually, with regular issues in January and June. Our mission is to publish scholarly articles in the field of Catholic moral theology, as well as theological treat- ments of related topics in philosophy, economics, political philosophy, and psychology. Articles published in the Journal of Moral Theology undergo at least two double blind peer reviews. Authors are asked to submit articles electronically to [email protected]. Submissions should be prepared for blind review. Microsoft Word format preferred. The editors as- sume that submissions are not being simultaneously considered for publication in another venue. Journal of Moral Theology is available full text in the ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials® (RDB®), a product of the American Theological Library Association. Email: [email protected], www: http://www.atla.com. ISSN 2166-2851 (print) ISSN 2166-2118 (online) Journal of Moral Theology is published by Mount St. Mary’s Univer- sity, 16300 Old Emmitsburg Road, Emmitsburg, MD 21727. Copyright© 2019 individual authors and Mount St. Mary’s Univer- sity. All rights reserved. EDITOR EMERITUS AND UNIVERSITY LIAISON David M. McCarthy, Mount St. Mary’s University EDITOR Jason King, Saint Vincent College SENIOR EDITOR William J. Collinge, Mount St. Mary’s University ASSOCIATE EDITOR M. Therese Lysaught, Loyola University Chicago MANAGING EDITOR Kathy Criasia, Mount St. Mary’s University BOOK REVIEW EDITORS Kent Lasnoski, Quincy University Christopher McMahon, Saint Vincent College EDITORIAL BOARD Jana M. Bennett, University of Dayton Mara Brecht, St. Norbert College Jim Caccamo, St. Joseph’s University Meghan Clark, St. John’s University David Cloutier, The Catholic University of America Christopher Denny, St. John’s University Matthew J. Gaudet, Santa Clara University Mari Rapela Heidt, Notre Dame of Maryland University Kelly Johnson, University of Dayton Andrew Kim, Marquette University Warren Kinghorn, Duke University John Love, Mount St. Mary’s Seminary Ramon Luzarraga, Benedictine University, Mesa William C. Mattison III, University of Notre Dame Christopher McMahon, Saint Vincent College Mary M. Doyle Roche, College of the Holy Cross Joel Shuman, Kings College Matthew Shadle, Marymount University Christopher P. Vogt, St. John’s University Brian Volck, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine Paul Wadell, St. Norbert College Greg Zuschlag, Oblate School of Theology J O U R N A L O F M O R A L T HEOLOGY V O L U M E 8, N UMBER 2 J UNE 2019 C ONTENTS Aquinas, Custom, and the Coexistence of Infused and Acquired Cardinal Virtues William C. Mattison III. ............................................................ 1 Elevated Virtue? Angela Knobel. ......................................................................... 25 Moral Virtues, Charity, and Grace: Why the Infused and Acquired Virtues Cannot Co-Exist Jean Porter............................................................................... 40 Catholic Social Teaching, Love and Thomistic Moral Precepts Daniel R. DiLeo ........................................................................ 67 Economic Rights, Reciprocity, and Modern Economic Tradition Andrew Beauchamp and Jason A. Heron ............................... 91 Local Authoritarianism as a Barrier to Democracy Cristina L.H. Traina ........................................................... 113 Rectifying Political Leadership Through a Just Peace Ethic Eli McCarthy and Leo Lushombo ........................................ 122 Book Reviews Sarah Bachelard, Resurrection and Moral Imagination ........................................................................ Kyle Washut 140 Sherri Brown and Christopher W. Skinner, eds., Johannine Ethics: The Moral World of the Gospel and Epistles of John ................................................................. Jeffrey L. Morrow 141 T. Ryan Byerly, Putting Others First: The Christian Ideal of Others- Centeredness ............................................... Marcus Mescher 143 William T. Cavanaugh, ed., Fragile World: Ecology and the Church ........................................................................Lucas Briola 145 Gary L. Chamberlain, Because Water Is Life: Catholic Social Teach- ing Confronts Earth’s Water Crises ................................................... Dawn M. Nothwehr, OSF 147 Daniel R. DiLeo, ed., All Creation Is Connected: Voices in Response to Pope Francis’s Encyclical on Ecology ............................................................... Kathryn Lilla Cox 148 Jonathan Homrighausen, Illuminating Justice: The Ethical Imagina- tion of The Saint John’s Bible ................. Catherine Petrany 150 Steven J. Jensen, Sin: A Thomistic Psychology ................................................................ Michael P. Krom 152 Micah D. Kiel, Apocalyptic Ecology: The Book of Revelation, the Earth, and the Future .......................... Benjamin J. Hohman 153 Matthew Levering, Dying and the Virtues ............ John Sikorski 155 Alexander Lucie-Smith, Narrative Theology and Moral Theology ................................................................. Alessandro Rovati 156 Gerald McKenny, Biotechnology, Human Nature, and Christian Ethics ............................................................ Gemma Baker 158 Steven P. Millies, Good Intentions: A History of Catholic Voters’ Road from Roe to Trump .......................... Charles Camosy 160 Anselm K. Min, ed., Faith, Hope, Love, and Justice: The Theological Virtues Today ............................ Paul J. Wadell 162 Mark C. Murphy, God’s Own Ethics: Norms of Divine Agency and the Argument from Evil ................... William J. Abraham 163 D. Preman Niles, Is God Christian? Christian Identity in Public Theology: An Asian Contribution ................. Julius-Kei Kato 165 Thomas Petri, Aquinas and the Theology of the Body: The Thomistic Foundations of John Paul II’s Anthropology ............................................................... Fr. Marek J. Duran 166 Steven C. van den Heuvel and Patrick Nullens, eds., Driven by Hope: Economics and Theology in Dialogue. ............................................................... Mari Rapela Heidt 168 Contributors ................................................................................... 170 Journal of Moral Theology, Vol. 8, No. 2 (2019): 1-24 Aquinas, Custom, and the Coexistence of Infused and Acquired Cardinal Virtues William C. Mattison III HE LAST DECADE HAS SEEN A STRIKING amount of scholar- ship devoted to the question of the relationship between the infused and acquired virtues, with a focus on the thought of T St. Thomas. More specifically, there is lively debate over whether or not those in a state of grace who possess the infused virtues can possess also the acquired virtues.1 Indeed, it may be the case that there has never been more sustained and in-depth scholarly attention to this issue, evident also in this volume of the Journal of Moral The- ology.2 This scholarship is replete with practical examples, which not only function as rhetorically effective, but also demonstrate the eve- ryday relevance of this rather technical debate. My purpose in this es- say is to contribute to that debate by calling into question a common assumption concerning one such practical example. In the example of a person with the infused virtues who loses them, it is assumed that any consistent good actions that persist after the loss of infused virtue 1 For an article that takes on this question directly and surveys prior scholarship ad- dressing it, see William C. Mattison III “Can Christians Possess the Acquired Vir- tues?” Theological Studies 72 (2011): 558-585. For scholarship in the past decade addressing this question directly, see Angela Knobel, “Can Aquinas’s Infused and Acquired Virtues Coexist in the Christian Life?” Studies in Christian Ethics 23 (2010): 381-96, “Two Theories of Christian Virtue,” American Catholic Philosophi- cal Quarterly 84 (2010): 599-618, and “Relating Aquinas’ Acquired and Infused Vir- tues: Some Problematic Texts,” Nova et Vetera 9, no. 2 (2011): 411-431; David Deco- simo, “More to Love: Ends, Ordering, and the Compatibility of Acquired and Infused Virtues,” in The Virtuous Life: Thomas Aquinas on the Theological Nature of Moral Virtues, ed. Harm Goris and Henk Schoot (Leuven: Peeters, 2017), 47-72 and Ethics as a Work of Charity: Thomas Aquinas and Pagan Virtue (Palo Alto: Stanford Uni- versity Press, 2014), 190-197; Andrew Pinsent, “Who’s Afraid of the Infused Virtues? Dispositional Infusion, Human and Divine,” in The Virtuous Life: Thomas Aquinas on the Theological Nature of Moral Virtues, ed. Harm Goris and Henk Schoot (Leu- ven: Peeters, 2017), 73-96; and Nicholas Austin, S.J., Aquinas on Virtue: A Causal Reading (Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 2017). 2 I support this claim in a forthcoming article on the ramifications of Thomas’s thought on dead faith for this debate. See William C. Mattison III, “Revisiting the Relationship Between the Infused and Acquired Cardinal Virtues: Lessons from Thomas Aquinas on Dead Faith,” Proceedings of the Society for Medieval Logic and Metaphysics 16 (2019): 11-24. In this volume of the Journal of Moral Theology, I am obviously in conversation with the essays by Jean Porter and Angela Knobel. 2 William C. Mattison III are due to the possession of acquired virtue. I will question this as- sumption by offering a Thomistic account