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Christocentric Exemplarism and the Imitation of Jesus

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Stephen J. Pope
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Abstract

This article examines the version of Christocentric exemplarism recently proposed by theologian Patrick Clark, whose Thomistic virtue ethics incorporates features of Linda Zagzebski's exemplarist moral theory. This article suggests that Clark and similar approaches to Christocentric virtue ethics would be better situated to appropriate Zagzebski's insights into exemplarity if it gave more prominence to the imitation of Jesus.

Keywords

exemplarvirtueadmirationemulationChristJesus
Type
Original Article
Information
New Blackfriars , Volume 101 , Issue 1093 , May 2020 , pp. 301 - 310
Copyright
Copyright © 2018 Provincial Council of the English Province of the Order of Preachers

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References

1 Zagzebski, Linda, Exemplarist Moral Theory (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2017), 10CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

2 See Mt 10:38, 16:24; Lk 14:27; Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae II-II,186,5.

3 Clark, Patrick M., “The Case for an Exemplarist Approach to Virtue in Catholic Moral Theology,” Journal of Moral Theology 3.1 (2014):54-82, at 58Google Scholar. Clark develops this account more fully in his Perfection in Death: The Christological Dimension of Courage in Aquinas (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America, 2015), esp. chs. 6 and 7Google Scholar.

4 Veritatis Splendor, no. 19.

5 Veritatis Splendor, no. 2; emphasis added by Clark, p. 60.

6 Ibid., citing GS, no. 22.

7 Sharing in Christ's Virtues (Washington, D.C: Catholic University of America Press, 2000).

8 Clark, ibid., 63.

9 Ibid., 67.

10 See Buckley, Michael J. S.J., Denying and Disclosing God: The Ambiguous Progress of Modern Atheism (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004), ch. 4Google Scholar.

11 O'Meara, Thomas O.P., “Virtues in the Theology of Thomas Aquinas,” Theological Studies 58 (1997):258CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

12 Clark relies primarily upon Zagzebski, Linda, “Exemplarist Moral Theory,” Metaphilosophy 41.1-2 (2010):41-57CrossRefGoogle Scholar, the central lines of which we developed in her Gifford Lectures.

13 Clark, ibid., 68.

14 Perfection in Death: The Christological Dimension of Courage in Aquinas (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America, 2016), ch. 6, p. 249.

15 Ibid., 69.

16 Ibid., 70. Citing Porter, Jean, Nature as Reason (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2004), 179Google Scholar.

17 Clark, ibid., 79

18 Ibid., 80.

19 Thomas Aquinas, Summa Contra Gentiles 4.54.7.

20 See, for example, Kotva, Joseph J. Jr., The Christian Case for Virtue Ethics (Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 1996)Google Scholar, Harrington, Daniel J. S.J., and Keenan, James F. S.J., Jesus and Virtue Ethics: Building Bridges Between New Testament and Moral Theology (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005)Google Scholar, and Burridge, Richard A., Imitating Jesus: An Inclusive Approach to New Testament Ethics (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2007)Google Scholar.

21 Spohn, William, Go and Do Likewise: Jesus and Virtue Ethics (New York: Continuum, 2000)Google Scholar.

22 Burridge, Richard A., Imitating Jesus: An Inclusive Approach to New Testament Ethics (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2007)Google Scholar.