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Protestant Virtue and Stoic Ethics

Publisher:
, 2017
ISBN: 9780567671370
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The Stoics are known to have been a decisive influence on early Christian moral thought, but the import of this influence for contemporary Christian ethics has been underexplored. Elizabeth Agnew Cochran argues that attention to the Stoics enriches a Christian understanding of the virtues, illuminating precisely how historical Protestant theology gives rise to a distinctive virtue ethic. Through examining the dialogue between Roman Stoic ethics and the work of Martin Luther, John Calvin, and Jonathan Edwards, Cochran illuminates key theological convictions that provide a foundation for a contemporary Protestant virtue ethic, consistent with theological beliefs characteristic of the historical Reformed tradition.

Constructs a contemporary Christian virtue ethic that draws on historical Protestant theologians in conversation with Roman Stoic ethics.

Redefines the scope of Christian virtue ethics by engaging the work of Luther, Calvin and Edwards
Advances reflection on the complex relationships among ancient philosophical traditions and Christian moral thought
Brings Christian ethics directly into conversation with contemporary thinkers in moral philosophy who draw heavily on the Stoics

Introduction and Acknowledgements

Chapter 1
Protestant Virtue Ethics and the Retrieval of the Stoics

Chapter 2
A Roman Stoic Ethic of Assent

Chapter 3
The Primacy of Faith in a Protestant Virtue Ethic

Chapter 4
Conversion, Transformation and Christian Progress: Protestant Soteriology and the Formation of Moral Character

Chapter 5
Providence, Necessity and the Human Will: Moral Agency in Historical Protestant Ethics

Conclusion: Future Prospects for Protestant Virtue Ethics
Bibliography
Index

Sufficiently insightful and creative to benefit students of moral theology and religious ethics, as well as scholars of virtue ethics searching for new points of entry into debates on, for example, the unity of the virtues and the role of faith in moral progress.

In the ever-growing literature on the recovery of virtue ethics, classical Protestant sources have been under-represented. The present volume is therefore a welcome addition to the contemporary study of virtue… This is a stimulating work. Cochran does the field of moral theology a service not only by extending discussions of virtue ethics to Luther, Calvin, and Edwards but also by calling attention to the Stoic tradition and its (often indirect) influence on Christian thought.

Elizabeth Agnew Cochran articulates a basis for a distinctively Protestant ethic of virtue by reading the theological ethics of Luther, Calvin, and Edwards in light of Stoic thought. A discerning and welcome contribution to the ethics of virtue.

As he walked to the guillotine in Edinburgh in May 1661, Archibald Campbell, Marquess of Argyll, with whose fate Presbyterianism was intertwined, calmly remarked, 'I die not as a Roman braving death but as a Christian without being affrighted'. Elitist, cognitive and austere, this striking avowal illustrates an unexpected and deep interplay between Protestant moral character and aspects of Roman stoicism, not least in their broad belief in providence and account of human emotional life. This is an original, valuable and illuminating account.

Protestant Virtue and Stoic Ethics is an important book. The turn to virtue in modern ethics typically has invoked a retrieval of Aristotle and Aquinas, even among thinkers associated with radical Protestantism. Without flatly denying these resources, Cochran deftly challenges the distorting narrative that often accompanies them by creatively pairing an alternative account of Stoic ethics and historical Protestant theology as expressed in figures like Luther, Calvin, and Edwards. Learned and constructive, the result is one of the most generative interventions in recent Protestant moral theology. In fact, by attending to diverse and often neglected conceptions of faith and moral agency, she provides a valuable contribution to virtue ethics, the reception history of moral traditions, and religious ethics more broadly.

A consistent and easily readable analysis of the interplay between stoicism and Reformation theology.

Research interests are in the history of moral thought (with particular focus on the eighteenth century), virtue ethics, sexual ethics, and health care ethics. Her dissertation is on Jonathan Edwards’ account of virtues in humans and its implications for moral agency. She has published several articles in journals, including Theology Today and the Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics, and presented papers at national and international conferences. Her most recent articles focus of the importance of Christology for virtue ethics. Dr. Cochran is pursuing ordination as a deacon in the United Methodist Church. Her denominational background undergirds one of her current research projects, which explores ways in which United Methodist and Catholic views of sin and redemption shape these traditions’ approaches to ethics. She is also working on an article about the moral significance of John Henry Newman’s concept of “assent.” and and

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