Christians among the Virtues: Theological Conversations with Ancient and Modern Ethics by Stanley Hauerwas, Charles Pinches (review)

156 BOOK REVIEWS These om1ss10ns in the author's presentation are pointed out not to denigrate his powers of synthesis (which are substantial), or to deflate the relevance of his own penetrating insights into Christianity's walk in faith through the last twenty centuries (which are themselves highly creative), but to point out the difficulties involved in writing a truly comprehensive account of the developing moral outlook of the believing community, the Church. Any attempt to write such an account must, of necessity, be selective. The present work is no exception. For this reason, those interested in getting a better idea of "the bigger picture," as the author puts it (505), would do well to read this work in the light of others of similar scope and purpose, most notably Louis Vereecke's De Guillaume d'Ockham asaint Alphonse de Liguori (1986); John Mahoney's The Making ofMoral Theology (1987); John Gallagher's Time Past, Time Future (1990); and Servais Pinckaers's The Sources of Christian Ethics (Eng. trans. 1995). While these works have their own weaknesses, are selective in their own right, and are not as comprehensive in scope, they will help to fill in some of the gaps left by the present work and, in some instances, go much further This book is worthy of notice and deserves to be read by a variety of audiences: academic, pastoral, even popular. It helps the reader move from a general reading of the history of Western Christianity to a more focused look at how that same history has influenced some of the broadest themes of the Church's theological vision. It would serve as a useful historical point of departure for courses in the Christian faith and moral life offered in colleges, seminaries, and, if the above precautions are taken into account, even as introductory material for doctoral level courses. The Alphonsian Academy Rome, Italy DENNIS}. BILLY, C.Ss.R. Christians among the Virtues: Theological Conversations with Ancient and Modern Ethics. By STANLEY HAUERWAS and CHARLES PINCHES. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1997. Pp. xvii + 230. $29.95 (cloth), $16.95 (paper). ISBN 0-268-00817-5 (cloth), 0-268-00819-1 (paper). Hauerwas and Pinches collaborate in this engaging series of essays, developing further a number of themes for which the former is now widely recognized. The notions of "narrative," "character," and "community" are consistently drawn upon throughout the text; nonetheless the reflections BOOK REVIEWS 157 offered here mark an advance in the conversation, focusing more specifically on the concept of "friendship" as treated in both Aristotle and Aquinas. Aquinas's treatment of our "friendship with God," or charity, becomes the authors' central point of departure as it is this notion, they argue, that sets Christian ethics apart from both Aristotelianism and other contemporary traditions of modern liberal (read: Enlightenment) moralities. In this sense they display their indebtedness to the efforts of Paul Wadell who, among others, has contributed to the revitalization of the study of charity in Thomistic ethics. The text is divided into three major sections, the first of which is dedicated to a careful reading of Aristotle's account of the virtues in the Nicomachaean Ethics. Among the more provocative insights of this section are the authors' reflections on the "magnanimous man" in Aristotle's ethics. The "magnanimous " person is identified not so much through a painstaking analysis of metaphysical niceties and teleological considerations as through an appropriation of the public, communal understanding of what constitutes human excellence. An Aristotelian discernment of the life of virtue, the authors contend, occurs within the life of a polis and among the common bonds of friendship. By focusing on this political dimension of moral reflection Hauerwas and Pinches open the way to a genuine consideration of the importance of friendship and community and the narratives that inform them in the life of moral reasoning. This signals, in their estimation, an implicit recognition of the importance not so much of "human nature" and other metaphysical notions as the community in which one's moral reflections take shape. "Reading Aristotle this way makes it easier for Christians to remember that the moral life does not derive from some general...