Virtue, Tradition, and Dissent: A Conversation Scheduled for May 4
04/06/2023
Four faculty members from Saint Louis University and Washington University will discuss the theme "Virtue, Tradition, and Dissent" in celebration of Emily Dumler-Winckler's book "Modern Virtue: Mary Wollstonecraft and a Tradition of Dissent." The event will be at 4 p.m. on Thursday, May 4, at Boileau Hall.
Dumler-Winckler, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of Constructive Theology and Christian Ethics at Saint Louis University. In addition to her presence other panelists will be:
- R. Marie Girffith, director and John C. Danforth Distinguished Professor in the Humanities at Washington University.
- Eleonore Stump, Ph.D., Robert J. Henle, S.J., professor at Saint Louis University
- Penny Weiss, Ph.D., professor of Women and Gender Studies and Political Science at Saint Louis University
The panelists will discuss "Virtue, Tradition, and Dissent" as the themes intersect with their own work.
Dumler-Winckler's new book argues that the cultivation of the virtues as well as contestation about them are part and parcel of the goods that Christians and democratic societies share in common. Drawing on the work of Mary Wollstonecraft, Dumler-Winckler aims to dissolve the anxieties of both defenders and despisers of virtue ethics and so form a rapprochement.
Influenced by religious dissenters in eighteenth-century England, Wollstonecraft revolutionized ancient traditions of the virtues in modern ways for feminist and abolitionist aims. For this modern feminist, as for premodern Christians, moral formation requires putting exemplars to the test of critical examination-discarding some, adopting others, and emulating the virtues of each.
By elaborating the specifically theological aspects of Wollstonecraft's account, this book demonstrates the role religious traditions have played in feminism and radical socio-political movements in the modern era. By treating the relation between modern rights and virtues such as justice and friendship, Dumler-Winckler illuminates their relation and roles in modern democratic societies. Modern Virtue provides an account of the virtues in modernity and, even, the virtues of modernity.