Readers of this blog know that I have been waiting for the publication of my new book, Commentary on Thomas Aquinas’s Virtue Ethics. I am pleased to say that the book is available now both in print and electronic editions. (My author copies have just arrived.)
If you would like to check it out online, you can read the analytical table of contents, the frontmatter including the introduction, a sample chapter, the index, and the endorsements.
There on the cover is a statue of the Archangel Michael at war, calmly driving a sword down the flaming mouth of the Serpent: A fitting image of virtue conquering vice. It adorns the Basílica de Guadalupe in Mexico City.
This is the latest in my series of commentaries on aspects of the Summa Theologiae. The first was my Commentary on Thomas Aquinas’s Treatise on Law, which came with a free online partner volume, Companion to the Commentary. Among some writers on ethics, there is a certain tendency to separate rules too sharply from virtues, but as the Angelic Doctor knew, neither can be understood properly apart from the other.