Moral Passion and Christian Ethics

Description

In this book, Robin Gill argues that moral passion and rational ethical deliberation are not enemies, and that moral passion often lurks behind many apparently rational ethical commitments. He also contends that though moral passion is a key component of truly selfless moral action, without rational ethical deliberation it can also be extremely dangerous. Gill maintains that a reanalysis of moral passion is overdue. He inspects the gap between the 'purely rational' accounts of ethics provided by some moral philosophers and the normative positions that they espouse and/or the moral actions that they pursue. He also contends that Christian ethicists have not been adept at identifying their own implicit moral passion or at explaining why it is that doctrinal positions generate passionately held moral conclusions. Using a range of disciplines, including cognitive science and moral psychology, alongside the more usual disciplines of moral philosophy and religious ethics, Gill also makes links with moral passion in other world faith traditions.

Robin Gill is Emeritus Professor of Applied Theology at the University of Kent. He is the editor of the journal Theology and of the New Studies in Christian Ethics monograph series. He has authored and edited over forty books, including Health Care and Christian Ethics (Cambridge, 2007), Theology in a Social Context: Sociological Theology, Volume 1, Theology Shaped by Society: Sociological Theology, Volume 2, and Society Shaped by Theology: Sociological Theology, Volume 3 (2012-13), as well as A Textbook of Christian Ethics, 4th edition (2014).