Living The Good Life
$24.95
Living the Good Life presents a brief introduction to virtue and vice, self-control and weakness, misery and happiness. The book contrasts the thought of Aquinas with popular views, such as moral relativism, values clarification, utilitarianism, Kantian deontology, and situation ethics. Following the Socratic dictum “know thyself,” Steven J. Jensen investigates the interior workings of the human mind, revealing the interplay of reason, will, and emotions. According to Aquinas, in a healthy ethical life, reason guides the emotions and will to the true human good. In an unhealthy life, emotional impulses distort the vision of reason, entrapping one in futile pursuits. In the human struggle to gain self-mastery, a person must overcome the capricious desires that enslave him to false goods.
Jensen ably guides readers through Aquinas’s philosophy and explains the distinction between the moral and intellectual virtues. The moral virtues train our various desires toward the true good, helping us discard our misguided cravings and teaching us to enjoy what is truly worth pursuing. The virtue of justice directs our hearts to the good of others, freeing us from egoism in order to seek a good shared with others. The intellectual virtues train the mind toward the truth, so that we can find fulfillment in human understanding. Most important, the virtue of prudence directs our deliberations to discover the true path of
life.
Intended as a text for students, beginners of philosophy will gain access to a key aspect of Aquinas’s thought, namely, that true happiness is realized not in the animal life of passion and greed but only in the reasonable pursuit of human goods, in which we find true peace and rest from the distractions of this world.
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SKU (ISBN): 9780813221458
ISBN10: 0813221455
Steven Jensen
Binding: Trade Paper
Published: June 2013
Publisher: Catholic University of America Press
Print On Demand Product
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Bridging the Great Divide: Musings of a Post-Liberal, Post-Conservative Evangelical Catholic represents a pivotal moment in the life of the Catholic community. As the Church seeks to maintain its unique witness, nurture the faithful, and evangelize, a new generation of American Catholics has emerged. No longer the “next generation,” these new leaders came of age after the Second Vatican Council and, like many others, no longer find compelling the battles between the liberals and conservatives throughout the post-conciliar period.Today’s faithful are searching for an expression of Catholic Christianity that is vibrant, colorful, provocative, counter-cultural, deeply rooted in the tradition, and full of the promise of the Good News. In this timely and prophetic book, Father Robert Barron–himself a member of the younger generation–has minted a new vernacular and blazed a new way that goes bridges the great divide and gives voice to the concerns of post-liberal, post-conservative, evangelical believers.
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