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Articles

Virtue ethics and the New Testament

Which matter most: virtues or duties? Bob Harrison thinks the early Christians had the answer.

For some time, now, moral philosophers have been scratching their heads over an intriguing problem. This has been going on for something like half a century, and it will no doubt keep us perplexed until well into the new millennium, if not beyond. The really curious thing is, though, that the first generation of Christians, who included only a few who would call themselves philosophers, found, if not the solution, at least a solution to the puzzle. And, not being philosophers, they weren’t even aware of what they had done.

The story begins with Aristotle.

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