This content downloaded from 170.140.26.180 on Wed, 27 Jan 2016 17:48:04 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Perfection in Death This content downloaded from 170.140.26.180 on Wed, 27 Jan 2016 17:48:04 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions This content downloaded from 170.140.26.180 on Wed, 27 Jan 2016 17:48:04 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Perfection in Death The Christological Dimension of Courage in Aquinas • Patrick M. Clark The Catholic University of America Press Washington, D.C. This content downloaded from 170.140.26.180 on Wed, 27 Jan 2016 17:48:04 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Copyright © 2015 The Catholic University of America Press All rights reserved The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standards for Information Science—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984. ∞ Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Clark, Patrick Mahaney. Perfection in death : the christological dimension of courage in Aquinas / Patrick M. Clark. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8132-2797-9 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Thomas, Aquinas, Saint, 1225?–1274. 2. Courage—Religious aspects—Catholic Church. 3. Perfection—Religious aspects—Catholic Church. 4. Death— Religious aspects—Catholic Church. I. Title. B765.T54C518 2015 236'.1—dc23 2015026259 This content downloaded from 170.140.26.180 on Wed, 27 Jan 2016 17:48:04 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions To Jennifer, with love • During the days of Jesus’s life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him and was designated by God to be high priest in the order of Melchizedek. Hebrews 5:7–10 This content downloaded from 170.140.26.180 on Wed, 27 Jan 2016 17:48:04 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions This content downloaded from 170.140.26.180 on Wed, 27 Jan 2016 17:48:04 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Contents Acknowledgments ix Abbreviations xi Introduction xiii Chapter 1. Achilles and Socrates: Ancient Attempts to Integrate Virtue, Death, and Human Perfection 1 Chapter 2. Practical Reason, Perfection, and Finitude in Aquinas 67 Chapter 3. Death and Human Perfection in Aquinas 105 Chapter 4. The Role of Courage in Aquinas’s Account of Human Perfection 146 Chapter 5. Aquinas on Courage, Martyrdom, and the Common Good 181 Chapter 6. Contemporary Exemplarist Virtue Theory and Moral Motivation in the Face of Death 245 Chapter 7. The Prospect and Limitations of “Thomistic Moral Exemplarism” 267 Selected Bibliography 305 Index 313 This content downloaded from 170.140.26.180 on Wed, 27 Jan 2016 17:52:37 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions This content downloaded from 170.140.26.180 on Wed, 27 Jan 2016 17:52:37 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Acknowledgments In the Summa Theologiae II-II, q. 106, a. 6, ad 2, Thomas Aquinas writes that “it is not unreasonable if the obligation of gratitude has no limit.” There seem to me to be few lines that bear more frequent recollection, es- pecially when considering what one owes to the assistance and support of others. Since St. Thomas himself writes this line with specific reference to charity, “which the more it is paid the more it is due,” it seems appropriate first and foremost to acknowledge my infinite gratitude to the source and fulfillment of all blessings, God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. As with all our feeble attempts to glorify him, this study would not have been pos- sible without “the copious assistance of his grace.” Above all else, I pray that it may serve his greater glory. I also owe an unlimited debt of gratitude to my teachers and advisers at the University of Notre Dame, most especially to my mentor, Jean Porter, whose scholarship, example, and personal guidance have been invaluable for my intellectual development and for this study in particular. I extend my sincere thanks as well to Gerald McKenny, Jennifer Herdt, and John Cavadini, who have been formative scholarly influences and extraordinary examples of how to live out the theological vocation. In addition, I would like to take this occasion to name a few of the many other mentors and teachers whose expertise and generosity have been critical to my scholarly growth; to Edward P. Mahoney†, Stanley Hauerwas, Stephen F. Brown, Matthew Lamb, Romanus Cessario, David Burrell, John O’Callaghan, Mi- chael Baxter, and Maura Ryan I extend my most sincere thanks. I am also very grateful for Calvin College’s Summer Seminars program, which granted me time and resources to draft the fourth and final part of this study during the summer of 2012. The peace of the campus and the extraordinary collegiality of the Summer Seminars staff and participants made it an ideal setting for the completion of this work. Finally, I would like to acknowledge my deep gratitude to my family: ix This content downloaded from 132.174.254.159 on Wed, 27 Jan 2016 18:00:35 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions