"Patching up Virtue". Issue 4 (10th October 2013)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Foster, James J. S.
• Is Part Of: Journal of religious ethics. Volume 41:Issue 4(2013)
• Page Start: 688
• Page End: 709
• Publication Date: 2013-10-10
• Subjects: Ethics -- Periodicals; Religious ethics -- Periodicals; Morale religieuse; Religion; Théologie; 205
• DOI: 10.1111/jore.12038
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0384-9694

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main"> <title>Abstract</title> <p>Herdt's <italic>P</italic><italic>utting On</italic> <italic>V</italic><italic>irtue</italic> has two chief aims. The first is to champion the virtue tradition against Christian moral quietism and modern deontological ethics. The second is to facilitate reconciliation between Augustinian and Emersonian virtue. To accomplish these tasks Herdt constructs a counter‐narrative to Schneewind's <italic>I</italic><italic>nvention of</italic> <italic>A</italic><italic>utonomy</italic>, in which Luther's resignation and Kant's innovation are tragic consequences of "hyper‐Augustinianism"—a competitive conception of divine and human agency, which leads to excessive suspicion of acquired virtue. This review argues that <italic>P</italic><italic>utting On</italic> <italic>V</italic><italic>irtue</italic> succeeds in its first aim but leaves its second intriguingly uncompleted. Despite this deficiency, however, this essay also argues that <italic>P</italic><italic>utting On</italic> <italic>V</italic><italic>irtue</italic> makes plausible Herdt's audacious suggestion that Augustinian and Emersonian perfectionism may be reconciled by bringing acquired and infused virtue under a single term.</p> </abstract>