Receptive Human Virtues

This book offers a new reading of Jonathan Edwardss virtue ethic that examines a range of qualities Edwards identifies as virtues and considers their importance for contemporary ethics. Each of Edwardss human virtues is receptive in nature: humans acquire the virtues through receiving divine grace, and therefore depend utterly on Edwardss God for virtues acquisition. By contending that humans remain authentic moral agents even as they are unable to attain virtue apart from his Gods assistance, Edwards challenges contemporary conceptions of moral responsibility, which tend to emphasize human autonomy as a central part of accountability.