TRS 837 Social & Spiritual Practices in Moral Formation
Examines debates over the role of social and individual practices in moral formation in contemporary moral theology. The first section will discuss the importance of social practices in shaping virtue theory through an analysis of positive and negative responses to Alasdair MacIntyre's influential account. The course will then investigate French social theorists' analysis of power, resistance, and the body in social practices. The last section of the course explores Michel Foucault's account of practices of the self in Hellenistic and early Christian ethics, and how his work has been used both historically, to understand Patristic ethics, and ethically, to address contemporary ethical problems.