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Saint T homas A quinas's Pagan Virtues?
Author(s) -
Overmyer Sheryl
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
journal of religious ethics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.306
H-Index - 20
eISSN - 1467-9795
pISSN - 0384-9694
DOI - 10.1111/jore.12037
Subject(s) - virtue , reading (process) , perspective (graphical) , normative , saint , philosophy , subject (documents) , virtue ethics , epistemology , epistemic virtue , environmental ethics , art , art history , computer science , linguistics , library science , visual arts
Today's conversations in virtue ethics are enflamed with questions of “pagan virtues,” which often designate non‐ C hristian virtue from a C hristian perspective. “Pagan virtues,” “pagan vices,” and their historied interpretations are the subject of J ennifer H erdt's book Putting On Virtue: The Legacy of the Splendid Vices (2008). I argue that the questions and language animating H erdt's book are problematic. I offer an alternative strategy to H erdt's for reading T homas A quinas's Summa Theologiae. My results are twofold: (1) a different set of conclusions and questions regarding the moral life that lend a fresh perspective to “pagan virtues” and (2) corresponding methodological suggestions for improving H erdt's project that would, to my mind, reaffirm her normative conclusions regarding the most viable ways forward for contemporary discussions of virtue.