Ecological Moral Character: A Catholic Model

An ecological model through which we can imagine Aquinas' vision of moral character

The images we use to think about moral character are powerful. They inform our understanding of the moral virtues and the ways in which moral character develops. However, this aspect of virtue ethics is rarely discussed.

In Ecological Moral Character, Nancy M. Rourke creates an ecological model through which we can form images of moral character. She integrates concepts of ecology with Aquinas' vision and describes the dynamics of a moral character in terms of the processes and functions that take place in an ecosystem. The virtues, the passions, the will, and the intellect, are also described in terms of this model.

Ecological Moral Character asks readers to choose deliberately the models we use to imagine moral character and offers this ecological virtue model as a vital framework for a period of environmental crisis.

Nancy M. Rourke is Associate Professor of Theology at Canisius College in Buffalo, NY. She is the co-editor of Theological Literacy in the Twenty First Century and numerous articles in Catholic theology.