Protestant Virtue and Stoic Ethics

The Stoics are known to have been a decisive influence on early Christian moral thought but the import of this influence for contemporary Christian ethics has been underexplored. Elizabeth Agnew Cochran argues that attention to the Stoics enriches a Christian understanding of the virtues illuminating precisely how historical Protestant theology gives rise to a distinctive virtue ethic. Through examining the dialogue between Roman Stoic ethics and the work of Martin Luther John Calvin and Jonathan Edwards Cochran illuminates key theological convictions that provide a foundation for a contemporary Protestant virtue ethic consistent with theological beliefs characteristic of the historical Reformed tradition.