Receptive human virtues : a new reading of Jonathan Edwards's ethics /

In this new reading of Jonathan Edwards's ethics, Cochran (Duquesne Univ.) positions Edwards within the long tradition of the ethics of virtue stemming from Aristotle and Aquinas. But the story is not that simple. A more complete explication of the distinctiveness of Edwards's ethics requires weaving in the influences of 17th- and 18th-century British and Scottish writers (notably Francis Hutcheson); the Cambridge Platonists; and the Reformed tradition from which Edwards came and the Enlightenment context within which he worked. The challenge is to show that Edwards's ethic of "receptive human virtues" balances divine sovereignty and grace with human freedom and moral accountability. Bringing Edwards into conversation with both premodern and modern virtue ethics reveals a surprisingly complex ethic of virtue nestled amid his doctrines of God, the Trinity, original sin, election, and providence. This leads to the conclusion that in Edwards one meets with "an ethic that stands out in singular fashion from other accounts of ethics in the historical Christian tradition ..... Cochran presents a creative, concise, and lucid account that deserves serious consideration by historians, theologians, and ethicists. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. B. M. Stephens emeritus, Pennsylvania State University, Brandywine Campus