Books by "Anthony J. Barry"
2 books found
Doing Justice: Knowing God represents a fundamentally new departure in ethical theory. Drawing on the work of Alasdair MacIntyre, John Milbank, and Franklin Gamwell, it argues that that modern and postmodern moral theory is fundamentally inadequate, and that the current crisis of values can be resolved only on the basis of a substantive vision of the Good. But it goes beyond these thinkers to argue that such a vision must be grounded metaphysically in a revitalized doctrine of Being. The result is a radically historicized natural-law ethics. This ethics argues that not only human individuals but human societies and indeed the universe as a whole grow and develop toward God. The fundamental moral law is to act in such a way as to promote this development. The book draws out the implications of this insight for our understanding of the virtues as well as for social justice.
During the early modern period, men and women in England lived their lives within a social and gender framework inherited from biblical times. Patriarchy - the social and cultural dominance of the male - has long been a feature of western civilization, and this work attempts to provide a portrait of the origins and operation of the system over a long stretch of the English past.