A journal of academic theology

Can Christians Possess the Acquired Cardinal Virtues?

The article proposes, contrary to much of contemporary Thomistic scholarship, that according to Thomas Aquinas’s categorizations of virtue, the person in a state of grace cannot possess the acquired cardinal virtues. Arguing from Aquinas’s theory of virtue as to why this is the case, the article examines texts that are commonly interpreted to say otherwise, and addresses reasons that prompt contemporary moralists to posit the acquired cardinal virtues in the Christian.

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