• Augustine and Philosophy
    with Johannes Brachtendorf, John D. Caputo, Alexander R. Eodice, Wayne J. Hankey, John Peter Kenney, Paul A. Macdonald Jr, Gareth B. Matthews, Roland J. Teske, Frederick Van Fleteren, and James Wetzel
    Lexington Books. 2010.
    The essays in this book, by a variety of leading Augustine scholars, examine not only Augustine's multifaceted philosophy and its relation to his epoch-making theology, but also his practice as a philosopher, as well as his relation to other philosophers both before and after him. Thus the collection shows that Augustine's philosophy remains an influence and a provocation in a wide variety of settings today
  •  10
    Augustine on the Will: A Theological Account (review)
    Augustinian Studies 53 (1): 116-120. 2020.
  •  12
    The Justice in Mercy
    Journal of Religious Ethics 48 (3): 399-417. 2020.
    It is natural to wonder how mercy is related to justice. I focus in this essay on a more limited question: how should we relate mercy and retributive justice? My suggestion is that attending to our situation as moral agents can help us solve this conundrum. I offer a pessimistic reading of our situation. Because of original sin and related forms of bad moral luck, we have limited control over our attitudes and actions. This has a surprisingly hopeful upshot, since our unfortunate condition makes…Read more
  •  6
    Womanist Ethics and the Cultural Production of Evil
    Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics 31 (1): 203-204. 2011.
  •  36
    Eudaimonism, Virtue, and Self‐Sacrifice
    Journal of Religious Ethics 47 (1): 7-14. 2019.
    This essay introduces some of the key topics at stake in the ongoing controversies about the place of eudaimonism in Christian ethics and theology. Whether and in what way a person should seek her or his own happiness and flourishing has been a central question in ethics for centuries. Here I summarize the contributions the essays in this focus issue make to that conversation, and conclude by briefly sketching a Neoplatonist approach to eudaimonism that may offer a way to build on the insights a…Read more
  •  12
    William E. Mann, God, Belief, and Perplexity
    Augustinian Studies 49 (2): 301-305. 2018.
  •  25
    Augustine’s Moral Psychology
    Augustinian Studies 48 (1): 23-44. 2017.
    This essay addresses common misunderstandings about the part of Augustine’s theological anthropology one might call his “moral psychology.” It particularly seeks to distance Augustine’s mature account of human agency from influential faculty psychologies. I argue that it is misleading to talk about Augustine’s view of the “will,” given what we typically mean by that term, and that “choice” is not central to Augustine’s account of human freedom. These claims hold not least because of the way Augu…Read more
  •  23
    This essay is an attempt to understand the significance of Barth's redefinition of the "law/gospel" rubric for political theology. Barth's thought is exposited at length, and illumined by comparison with Luther and Calvin. Luther emphasizes the distance between gospel and the law, distinguishing between serving God in the secular regiment, and serving Christ in the spiritual regiment. He thereby challenges the improper relation of state and church, but does so in a manner that can lead to a pass…Read more
  •  32
    The Possibilities of Forgiveness
    Journal of Religious Ethics 41 (3): 377-381. 2013.
    Perhaps the best way to challenge anodyne popular conceptions of forgiveness is to highlight the ways in which “forgiveness,” like “justice” and “freedom,” is a rich and deeply contested term that relies for its content on divergent convictions about who we are and who we should seek to be. The essays in this focus issue articulate some of the many possibilities for practicing and thinking about forgiveness
  • In this study I engage St. Augustine's doctrine of original sin, both to understand what that doctrine really is, and to see whether it can still be believed. While the doctrine has been disputed on many fronts, I focus on a central, moral worry: it seems unfair to hold people responsible for an inherited fault. This leads me to explore enduring questions about the nature of freedom and responsibility, human and divine. My main contention is that currently popular accounts of responsibility that…Read more
  •  263
    What sin is: A differential analysis
    Modern Theology 25 (4): 563-587. 2009.
    In the article "What Sin Is: A Differential Analysis," Jesse Couenhoven delves into the definitions and categorizations of sin according to various Christian doctrines. The author critically examines traditional definitions, such as those provided by the Westminster Confession and catechisms, and argues that they fail to adequately distinguish between sin and evil, often conflating natural evils with sinful acts. Couenhoven also considers gray areas of ethical behavior, such as the actions of a …Read more
    Sin
  •  14
    Augustine and the Functions of Concupiscence. By Timo Nisula (review)
    Augustinian Studies 45 (1): 167-170. 2014.
  •  111
    St. Augustine’s Doctrine of Original Sin
    Augustinian Studies 36 (2): 359-396. 2005.
  •  18
    Christians have long understood grace both as a declaration of acceptance and as a power that transforms. This article illumines two theses while investigating the relationship between these understandings of grace in Luther, Calvin, and Barth's development of the law/gospel dialectic and the doctrines of justification and sanctification. First, though each theologian makes use of both understandings of grace, each also tends to emphasize one over the other. The unity and tension within and betw…Read more
  •  43
    Virtue and deontological ethics are now commonly contrasted as rival approaches to moral inquiry. However, I argue that neither metaethical party should seek complete, solitary domination of the ethical domain. Reductive treatments of the right or the virtuous, as well as projects that abandon the former or latter, are bound to leave us with a sadly diminished map of the moral territories crucial to our lives. Thus, it is better for the two parties to seek a more cordial and equal relationship, …Read more
  •  15
    Sin: A History – By Gary A. Anderson
    Modern Theology 27 (1): 194-197. 2011.