Character After Christendom: Aesop's Fables Aren't Enough
Keith J. Pavlischek
January 1, 1995
Some day, when a historian writes a history of ethics in twentieth-century America, perhaps he or she will note that the turn in ethics to a concentration upon self, development of the self's character and vision, and the turn to an emphasis upon being rather than doing were not unexpected turns in an increasingly narcissistic age. We should consider therefore the possibility that even those thinkers who have returned to notions of virtue in an attempt to escape the individualism of our times—and there are such thinkers—may be part of a larger current of history in which their turn is only a small part of an increasingly dangerous concentration upon self and self-development.
—Gilbert Meilaender, The Theory and Practice of Virtue
Gilbert Meilaender may be right, but the turn to an emphasis on character and an "ethics of virtue" can be pretty tempting for Christians—especially those with children to raise. If we tend to think that the culture is going to hell in a handbasket, which is a not so implausible thought, we will likely welcome things like William Bennett's The Book of Virtues. It sure beats MTV.
And this renewed emphasis on character development isn't limited to the perceptions of the common folk. Intellectuals can play the character-building game too. For those of us who believe that Alasdair MacIntyre is right in suggesting that the morally fragmented chaos of modernity signals the approach of the "New Dark Ages," the renewed emphasis on character and virtue would seem to be a welcome sign. Indeed, it seems to be just a bit churlish to suggest that training young people in the virtues, traits, and dispositions required to withstand the assaults of the barbarians might not be altogether felicitous.
But that's what ...
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