Aligning and Reorienting the Passible Self: Maximus the Confessor’s Virtue Ethics

This essay seeks to abstract from the works of Maximus the Confessor (580–662) a ‘theory’ of virtue ethics that engages Maximus’s own categories and language while still developing conversation with contemporary virtue ethics. First is a reconstruction of the larger cosmological (and moral) ‘narrati...

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Détails bibliographiques
Auteur principal: Blowers, Paul M. (Auteur)
Type de support: Électronique Article
Langue:Anglais
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Publié: Sage 2013
Dans: Studies in Christian ethics
Année: 2013, Volume: 26, Numéro: 3, Pages: 333-350
Sujets non-standardisés:B Incarnation
B Desire
B Love
B Imitation
B Virtue
B Reason
Accès en ligne: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Description
Résumé:This essay seeks to abstract from the works of Maximus the Confessor (580–662) a ‘theory’ of virtue ethics that engages Maximus’s own categories and language while still developing conversation with contemporary virtue ethics. First is a reconstruction of the larger cosmological (and moral) ‘narrative’—the oikonomia Maximus sees embodied in sacred history—that frames his essentially teleological understanding of the formation of virtue in created beings. The second part of the essay explores Maximus’s doctrine of the moral self as a synthesis of ‘diachronic’ and ‘synchronic’ dimensions, and details three identifiable protocols by which moral agents cultivate the Christian virtues: first, the development of intellectual virtues such as prudence that serve clear vision (theoria) of worthy moral ends; second, the appropriate ‘use’ of the passible faculties of desire and temper in alliance with reason; and third, the conditioning of the virtues within moral communities (monastery or church) characterized by relations of accountability, imitation, and the traditioning of moral wisdom.
ISSN:0953-9468
Contient:Enthalten in: Studies in Christian ethics
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1177/0953946813484409