Wealth, Virtue, and Moral Luck: Christian Ethics in an Age of Inequality

by Kate Ward

Overview

In Wealth, Virtue, and Moral Luck, Kate Ward addresses the issue of inequality from the perspective of Christian virtue ethics, arguing that our individual life circumstances affect our ability to pursue virtue and showing how Christians and Christian communities should respond to create a world where it is easier for people to be virtuous.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781647121372
Publisher:	Georgetown University Press
Publication date:	10/01/2021
Series:	Moral Traditions series
Pages:	280
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.75(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Kate Ward, who received her PhD from Boston College in 2016, is an assistant professor of theology at Marquette University. She has published articles on wealth, virtue, and economic inequality in journals including Theological Studies, the Journal of Religious Ethics, Heythrop Journal, and the Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Reframing the Problem of Inequality

1. Groundwork

2. Christian Virtue Ethics

3. Toward a Christian Virtue Account of Moral Luck

4. Defining Wealth and Poverty for Christian Virtue Ethics

5. Wealth, Virtue, and the Dangers of Hyperagency

6. Poverty, Virtue, and the Impact of Scarcity

7. Inequality and Virtue

Bibliography

Index

About the Author

What People are Saying About This

Christine Firer Hinze

In this insightful and vibrantly interdisciplinary volume, Kate Ward shows how the moral luck of social inequality misshapes characters and divides communities, by conferring individualistic hyperagency on those of us who have more than enough, and demeaning deprivation on those who lack it. Fusing compelling analysis with practical examples and directions for transformation, Ward’s welcome contribution advances the frontiers of both Catholic economic and virtue ethics. Highly recommended!

Anthony M. Annett

Inequality has risen to the top of the political agenda. Long neglected by economists, it is now seen as a pressing concern. Ward makes the argument that inequality harms moral development. She shows that it can impede virtue among rich and poor alike. This is a perspective with deep resonance in the Christian tradition but which attracts comparatively little attention in contemporary discourse. With this novel perspective, Ward offers an indispensable contribution to the literature on inequality.

Editorial Reviews

Kate Ward’s innovative contribution to research on economic inequality focuses on the extent to which such inequality causes, rather than merely reflects, moral deformation in society.

Theological Studies

Wealth, Virtue, and Moral Luck makes a vital and well-constructed contribution to Christian virtue ethics.

Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics