Medieval Consideration and Moral Pace

Abstract

This essay examines the relationship between virtue and understandings of time through a comparative examination of two medieval Christian writers, Bernard of Clairvaux and Thomas Aquinas. By locating temporal dimensions of virtue primarily in discussions of prudence, this essay compares Thomas's account of the virtue of counsel as preparatory to prudent judgment with Bernard's earlier account of consideration as an integrating virtue that coordinates an examination of physical surroundings and social responsibilities with an examination of one's own inner life and history of moral decisions. The essay argues that accounts of virtue ethics focusing on tradition‐specific views of the human good and practical reasoning are insufficient if they do not also examine how practical reasoning interprets and responds to religious interpretations of time that disclose the distinctive kinds of moral problems arising in each historical period.

Reflecting and Advancing the Transformation: Catholic Theological Ethics and the Journal of Religious Ethics, 1973–2023

“…Augustine, Aquinas, Bernard of Clairvaux, Peter Abelard, Kierkegaard, Barth, and Tillich are the focus of multiple studies by theologians working in and on the Catholic tradition, and these have generated important insights not only on how the tradition's view on foundational issues like natural law (Porter 2005) or the virtues (Porter 1990, 1993) has evolved, but also on how its teaching on issues of critical contemporary concern—including sex (Cahill 2001), war (Langan 1984), and wealth (Ward 2014)—has developed. There are also occasional comparative historical studies, for example Brian Stiltner's comparative analysis of Kierkegaard and Aquinas (1993) and David Clairmont's of Aquinas and Bernard of Clairvaux (2013) in which this developmental nature of moral teaching is highlighted and analyzed.…”