Aquinas, Joseph Selling, and the Exterior Moral Act
Contemporary Catholic theologian Joseph Selling proposes an interpretation of the moral teaching of Thomas Aquinas that focuses strictly on an agent’s interior intention of a primary goal. As a result, Selling rejects the idea that in some instances a person’s moral act can also be partially specifi...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
2021
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| In: |
International journal of systematic theology
Year: 2021, Volume: 23, Issue: 4, Pages: 525-553 |
| IxTheo Classification: | KAE Church history 900-1300; high Middle Ages KAJ Church history 1914-; recent history NBE Anthropology NCA Ethics |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Contemporary Catholic theologian Joseph Selling proposes an interpretation of the moral teaching of Thomas Aquinas that focuses strictly on an agent’s interior intention of a primary goal. As a result, Selling rejects the idea that in some instances a person’s moral act can also be partially specified in light of the kind of voluntary exterior action that is performed. He maintains that, for Aquinas, an exterior act in and of itself has no intrinsic moral character apart from an agent’s intention of a primary goal. I address the key claims that Selling makes about the teaching of Aquinas, and I propose an alternative interpretation. It is not the case that Aquinas teaches that all voluntarily performed exterior acts are morally indifferent (merely physical) acts. Rather, Aquinas teaches that only some kinds of voluntarily performed exterior acts involve moral indifference. |
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| ISSN: | 1468-2400 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: International journal of systematic theology
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1111/ijst.12516 |