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Articles

Jesus, Pioneer of Post-Modern Ethics

A reply to Bob Harrison by Michael Williams.

In his article, ‘Virtue Ethics and the New Testament’, (Philosophy Now, Issue 21) Bob Harrison argues that the insights of Jesus and Paul help us to find a way through the conflict between act based ethics and agent based ethics. He suggests that the two can be held together by understanding that the work of the Spirit within the agent so transforms the agent that s/he lives out a fulfilment of the act/rule based ethic of the Old Testament. He puts it like this, “Act in the way that exhibits the virtues which the Holy Spirit develops in you, the way of love, and you will find yourself fulfilling the ideals of the Old Testament.”

There are two things wrong with this argument. Firstly, it represents a refusal to move from Aristotelian and Kantian ethics to a properly post-modern ethic.

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