Hello and welcome back to Lady Disdain Reads. Today I discuss an article by theologian Peter Leithart titled 'Real Men Read Austen', in which he makes a case for Austen as a public theologian. Enjoy!
My video on Austen, duty and Kant:
• Duty in Jane Austen's ...
Quotations from Leithart:
‘there is a precision and lack of ornamentation’ in her prose, that makes ‘every other writer’s style seem bloated’.
‘For a Christian writer, the real challenge of life is not to puzzle the ultimate realities, but to live well in very particular social and domestic settings. The moral philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre discerns an Aristotelean trait in Austen’s recognition that virtues are formed, tested, and manifested within community. As Aristotle pointed out, this makes ethics a subdivision of politics - that is, it makes the question ‘What should I do?’ a sub-question under ‘What kind of community do I wish to live in, and what is my place in it’?’
‘it does not mean that there are no absolutes of right and wrong. But it does mean that the absolutes have particular applications to particular people in particular circumstances’
‘Ethics is not just about individuals seeking to live a good life or about solitary decision-making trying to achieve ethical perfection; we are simply not isolated like that.’
‘the most theologically sophisticated of English novelists’
4 сен 2024