Habits and Holiness: Ethics, Theology, and Biopsychology (Thomistic Ressourcement Series)
Digital Verbum Edition
Overview
The topic of habitus is one of Thomas Aquinas’s greatest contributions to moral theology, but it has been generally neglected in theological scholarship until now. Habits and Holiness is the first work in English to explore Aquinas’s rich theology of habit in all of its grandeur and depth. Habits and Holiness shows that most facets of human life and behavior are greatly influenced by habits, which Thomas appraises as an analogous concept that is much broader than previous scholarship has recognized.
Habits and Holiness accomplishes three tasks. First, it gives a complete and coherent account of Aquinas’s account of habitus. Most accounts of Aquinas’s view of habitus focus almost exclusively on "Treatise on Habits" in the Summa Theologiae I-II, qq. 49-54, and speak of habitus in reference to the virtues. However, Aquinas speaks of habitus in many other places, especially his commentaries on Aristotle’s works and his commentaries on Sacred Scripture. Aquinas employs the concept of habitus to explain a wide variety of human inclinations, such as instincts, personal and societal custom, acquired skills and virtues, original sin, grace, infused virtues, and Gifts of the Holy Spirit. Second, this book indicates how biological psychology illuminates and enriches Aquinas’s account of habit, and vice versa. Finally, Habits and Holiness provides readers with a framework for interpreting and utilizing the vast amount of practical habit literature that exists: it offers a practical analysis of habit development found in Aquinas’s works and those of empirical studies.
The topic of habits is a golden thread that helps readers find their way through Aquinas’s extensive writings on morals. By describing the many kinds of habits we possess, and their widespread but often hidden effects in our lives, this book offers a new and unique reevaluation of many issues central to the moral life. It addresses childhood development, pagan virtue, akrasia, circumstances that limit free choice, how heroic virtue operates, and more.
By seeing habits in general as a prism for understanding human action and its influences, Habits and Holiness provides a unique and appealing synthesis of Thomistic virtue theory, the contemporary science of habits, and best practices for eliminating bad habits and living good habits.
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- Looks into themes that traditionally had been restricted to the field of speculative philosophy and ethics
- Grants an overview of the empirical scientific studies of habits, presenting the achievements of neuroscience and its complementary experimental psychology
- Discusses infused habits, known only in faith, the infused theological and moral virtues, and the Gifts of the Holy Spirit
Introduction: Are Habits Necessary?
Part 1. Subterranean Habits
- Dispositions Derived from Human Nature
- Dispositions Derived from Individual Nature
- Experience and Habituation
Part 2. Human, Inhuman, and Divine Habits
- Freedom and Habituation
- Positive Habits and Virtues
- Negative Habits and Vices
- Grace, Flourishing, and the Grades of Virtue
- Theological Virtues and the Gifts of the Holy Spirit
Part 3. Hacking Your Habits
- Elements of Habit Change
- Forming Habits for Life
Conclusion: The Habitual Readiness to Flourish
A needed contribution to Thomistic moral thought on habit. Sullivan’s contributions are significant, his scholarship is superb. He has a phenomenal grasp of Thomas and his command of secondary material is staggeringly voluminous and incredibly impressive.
William C. Mattison III, University of Notre Dame
Deeply informed by the rich Catholic moral tradition and contemporary biological psychology, Fr. Ezra Sullivan offers us enlightening, perceptive, and wise insights into the workings of human habits as a way of leading to a ‘habitual readiness to flourish.’ This is a highly original and reliable guide that is balanced, clear, thorough, and, moreover, accessible to a large intellectual audience.
James Arthur, OBE, Director of the Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues, University of Birmingham
The current revival of interest in virtue ethics awaited this masterful synthesis on habitus and its role in the moral life. With great pedagogical skills and an impressive knowledge of the literature on the subject, Fr. Sullivan succeeds in showing how habitus structures the different dimensions of human existence, from its biological roots to the highest forms of participation in the divine life. Creating a fascinating dialogue between the Thomist doctrine, reconstructed through an accurate exegesis of the texts, and the empirical sciences, he confirms, if it be needed, that Aquinas is an expert on humanity, Doctor humanitatis, and precisely for this reason an unparalleled guide on the paths that lead to holiness.
Serge-Thomas Bonino, OP, President of the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas