Aquinas and the infused moral virtues / Angela McKay Knobel.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Knobel, Angela, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Virtues.

Thomas, Aquinas, Saint, 1225?-1274.

Thomas.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (229 pages)

Place of Publication:

Notre Dame, Indiana : University of Notre Dame Press, [2021]

Summary:

"Aquinas holds that all the virtues are bestowed on humans by God along with the gift of sanctifying grace. Since he also holds, with Aristotle, that we can create virtuous dispositions in ourselves through our own repeated good acts, a question arises: How are we to understand the relationship between the virtues God infuses at the moment of grace and virtues that are gradually acquired over time? Angela McKay Knobel provides a detailed examination of Aquinas's theory of infused moral virtue, with special attention to the question of how the infused and acquired moral virtues are related. Part 1 examines Aquinas's own explicit remarks about the infused and acquired virtues and considers whether and to what extent a coherent 'theory' of the relationship between the infused and acquired virtues can be found in Aquinas. Knobel argues that while Aquinas says almost nothing about how the infused and acquired virtues are related, he clearly does believe that the 'structure' of the infused virtues mirrors that of the acquired in important ways. Part 2 uses that structure to evaluate existing interpretations of Aquinas and argues that no existing account adequately captures Aquinas's most fundamental commitments. Knobel ultimately argues that the correct account lies somewhere between the two most commonly advocated theories. Written primarily for students and scholars of moral philosophy and theology, the book will also appeal to readers interested in understanding Aquinas's theory of virtue."--Back cover

Contents:

The structure of natural virtue

Habits of being: the structure of supernatural virtue

Relating the virtues: Aquinas's texts

Interpretive options, part I: coexistence

Interpretive options, part II: unification

A proposal for a way forward.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780268201081

0268201080

9780268201111

0268201110

OCLC:

1273969179