Aquinas’s Eschatological Ethics and the Virtue of Temperance by Matthew Levering

Abstract

Reviewed by: Aquinas’s Eschatological Ethics and the Virtue of Temperance by Matthew Levering Kevin E. O’Reilly O.P. Aquinas’s Eschatological Ethics and the Virtue of Temperance by Matthew Levering (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2019), xi + 432 pp. In the resurgence of interest in virtue ethics in recent decades, temperance has received relatively little treatment compared to the other three cardinal virtues—leaving aside of course the copious attention that John Paul II’s Theology of the Body has received. The reason for this neglect is no doubt the difficulty that attends the living out of temperance, which, as St. Thomas writes, “is properly about pleasures of meat and drink and sexual pleasures” (Summa theologiae II-II, q. 141, a. 4). Temperance however is not restricted simply to matters concerning food and sex. Any virtue, Thomas tells us, “that is effective of moderation in some matter or other, and restrains the appetite in its impulse towards something, may be reckoned a part of temperance” (ST II-II, q. 143, a. 1). Temperance thus includes not only the virtues that engage our embodied condition but also the virtues of humility, clemency, meekness, and studiousness. Matthew Levering clearly states the thrust of his book at the very outset: in it he shows that “chastity and the other parts of Christian temperance are inseparable from the moral life of the inaugurated kingdom, as set forth in the New Testament and as elucidated systematically in Aquinas’s theology” (1). The author achieves this end by examining the “parts” of temperance as set forth by Thomas in the light of three dimensions of the inaugurated kingdom: “The eschatological renewal of the temple, the eschatological restoration of the people of God, and the eschatological forgiveness of sins [End Page 700] and the outpouring of the Spirit” (7). Thus, the integral parts of temperance—“The integral parts of a virtue are the conditions the concurrence of which are necessary for virtue” (ST II-II, q. 143, a. 1)—namely shame and honestas, are linked with the eschatological renewal of the temple. Shame, while it does not enjoy the perfection of virtue, nevertheless impels a man to flee the disgrace and ugliness of intemperance. Honestas, on the other hand, refers to moral excellence, and anyone who possesses this virtue also manifests spiritual beauty. When through lack of shame a man allows his sensual desires rather than rightly ordered reason to rule his life, he inevitably descends into idolatry, worshipping the creature rather than the Creator. He thereby becomes morally ugly. The repentant man, in contrast, appreciates that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. The practice of temperance renders his body honorable and spiritually beautiful. By the grace of the Holy Spirit he participates in “the perfect worship of the true temple, who is Christ himself ” (48). The subjective parts of temperance—that is to say, its species that are differentiated “according to the difference of matter or object” (48)— include abstinence, fasting, sobriety, and chastity. Levering argues that Thomas’s treatment of these virtues “illumines the eschatological restoration of God’s people accomplished in Christ” (52). Indeed, eating and drinking rightly is a fundamental trait of this eschatologically restored people. As Thomas writes, the use of and abstinence from food “belong to the kingdom of God, in so far as they are done reasonably through faith and love of God” (ST II-II, q. 146, a. 1, ad 1). Abstinence, when undertaken in accord with right reason, aims at God’s glory and fosters a concern for our neighbors’ needs. Fasting, for its part, in addition to restraining the lusts of the flesh and satisfying for sins, also facilitates the contemplation of heavenly things. Consumption of alcohol obviously has the capacity to undermine this contemplation, since it constitutes “a special kind of hindrance to the use of reason” (ST II-II, q. 149, a. 2). As Levering notes, “when we are drunk, we cannot govern ourselves toward charitable service of God and neighbor, and indeed drunk persons often inflict harm upon other people, including family members” (75). Sobriety, in contrast, along with abstinence and fasting, helps to form “an...