Democratic Moral Education and the Gifts of the Holy Spirit. Issue 2 (June 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Jordan, Mark D.
• Is Part Of: Journal of religious ethics. Volume 44:Issue 2(2016)
• Page Start: 246
• Page End: 259
• Publication Date: 2016-06
• Subjects: Thomas Aquinas -- gifts of the Holy Spirit -- ethical pedagogy -- political philosophy; Ethics -- Periodicals; Religious ethics -- Periodicals; Morale religieuse; Religion; Théologie; 205
• DOI: 10.1111/jore.12140
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0384-9694

Abstract

Abstract: How far is Thomas Aquinas available for current discussions in political philosophy? While there are certainly things to be learned from him about our political preoccupations, the pedagogy of his moral teaching typically resists our familiar questions. This holds even when the question is put in terms that Thomas should recognize—say, as a question about the virtues appropriate for a democracy. Thomas not only gives different meanings to these terms, he moves political topics away from the center of theological attention and so organizes them very differently. A reader can notice these differences at many points but perhaps especially in the attention that Thomas gives in the Summa to the gifts of the Holy Spirit. His account of these gifts qualifies significantly what he says of virtue and suggests large limits on human agency, whether in ethics or in politics.