| The reception of virtue ethics by Protestant ethicists is at a crossroads. Thirty years ago a resurgence of interest in moral virtue ethics led to its early embrace. Theological concerns, however, remain. Within the Reformed tradition, these concerns come to the fore in Karl Barth's work. Barth's rejection of the analogia entis challenges the relationship of nature and grace presupposed in Thomistic virtue ethics, where "grace does not destroy nature but perfects it." For Thomas Aquinas, human nature must already be open to grace in order to receive it. Barth, on the other hand, views grace as a disruptive influence: God's grace comes to us in the form of a command that unsettles our presumptions of self-sufficiency. Does Barth's view of grace make virtue impossible? No.;According to the thesis of this dissertation, addressing Karl Barth's concerns requires that Reformed moral virtue ethics be grounded in, and shaped by, a covenant based in God's free election of humankind. That covenant is initiated by God's electing choice to be with us. God's gift of grace to us is entirely free, having no basis in our own being or our receptivity to it (contra Aquinas). Instead, God's revelation creates the necessary conditions for its human reception. While God always initiates, our human response remains free. Finally, the grace that we receive is always identified with Christ. It cannot be conceptually separated out such that it becomes our own possession. The moral virtue ethics that results from these constraints both affirms God's sovereignty and human freedom.;Reformed moral virtue ethics offers needed resources for the church's social witness. To demonstrate its potential, this dissertation includes an examination of the response of the Presbyterian Church (USA) to globalization from 1996-2006. The Presbyterian Church (USA) is a denomination whose social witness is self-consciously Reformed. It will be shown that such witness depends in part upon the individual moral response of its congregants. |
