Porters to Heaven

Abstract

This essay presents Augustine as a rich ethical resource on issues of wealth and poverty. Contrary to prevalent views that he had little to say on issues of economic justice, Augustine decries wealth as morally dangerous, promotes the agency of the poor in advocating for themselves with the wealthy, and supports distributive justice. Augustine envisions an interdependent Christian community where the wealthy not only help the poor, but rely on the poor to help them achieve salvation by “bearing their goods to heaven,” as Augustine describes the receipt of alms. Augustine's view of wealth's moral danger is an apt resource for ethicists interested in virtue. His insistence on poor people's moral agency and interdependence among poor and wealthy speak to pressing issues of justice in today's unequal societies.

Reflecting and Advancing the Transformation: Catholic Theological Ethics and the Journal of Religious Ethics, 1973–2023

“…Moreover, work published in the JRE has not only contributed to the constructive task of theological ethics, but rather, in valorizing historical studies per se , the JRE has affirmed a particular reading of the identity of Catholic moral theology as a tradition that encapsulates both continuity and change. Augustine, Aquinas, Bernard of Clairvaux, Peter Abelard, Kierkegaard, Barth, and Tillich are the focus of multiple studies by theologians working in and on the Catholic tradition, and these have generated important insights not only on how the tradition's view on foundational issues like natural law (Porter 2005) or the virtues (Porter 1990, 1993) has evolved, but also on how its teaching on issues of critical contemporary concern—including sex (Cahill 2001), war (Langan 1984), and wealth (Ward 2014)—has developed. There are also occasional comparative historical studies, for example Brian Stiltner's comparative analysis of Kierkegaard and Aquinas (1993) and David Clairmont's of Aquinas and Bernard of Clairvaux (2013) in which this developmental nature of moral teaching is highlighted and analyzed.…”