Virtue Ethics in Christ 's Sermon on the Mount Essay

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Virtue EthicsAristotle notes that “if then there is an end for our activity, this will be the good to be accomplished; and if there are several such ends, it will be these” (p. 316). In other words, the idea of virtue ethics is that the most moral course of action is that which leads one to his final absolute end, which is happiness. Aristotle suggests that virtue is what can make man happiest. This idea is essentially repeated in Hawthorne’s story “The Great Stone Face,” for it is about a succession of people who try to live up to the ideal of the Great Stone Face in the mountains only to have it revealed that they have character flaws which prevent them from being the fulfillment of the local prophecy of one being born who is great enough to be the living embodiment of the Stone Face. The problem with each of the characters is that ultimately he has been living for himself and either some vanity or pride or lack of charity has prevented him from having the kind of benevolence that truly goes with greatness. But Ernest shows this benevolence in his preaching, and the writer suddenly recognizes him as the Great Stone Face. Yet Ernest waves him off for his end is not to be praised but rather to preach to others.

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…for virtue ethics, even if Aristotle created the idea well before Christ ever existed.But as the Sermon on the Mount shows, it is Christ who gives the ultimate embodiment of the Great Stone Face of Hawthorne’s story. Christ is the one who says to love your enemies: he is the one who says, “You must be perfect—just as your Father in heaven is perfect” (p. 388). What then is happiness and virtue if not the kind of perfection that Christ depicts in this sermon? And how can such happiness, virtue and perfection be attained in this life where everyone is touched by some ailment, some imperfection, some flaw? Obviously it can only come in the next….....

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