This little 100 page book will, I believe, become a "classic" that must be read not only by philosophers and theologians, but be anyone interested in morality and ethics, whether or not they agree with Professor Rist's thesis. (As an aside, it was quite clear when Professor Rist presented this Aquinas Lecture, that some of the philosophers in his audience definitely did not agree with it.) But agree or not, in clear and concise language, that is as easily understood by lay persons as by academics, Rist makes the case that moral philosophy cannot be inoculated from God, as our modern society consistently attempts to do, because God is the necessary and indispensable foundation for ethics and morality. But perhaps more unnerving still, Professor Rist lays the blame for the origination of "profane ethics" squarely upon the sholders of "a group of theistic, indeed Christian, philosophers who act as though it makes no great difference in ethics whether God exists at all." This unapologetic "apologia" moves quickly through history, starting with St. Augustine and eventually honing in on a point Kant made, that theoretical reason [is] essentially impotent, and certainly has nothing to contribute to ethics." Yet Rist moves beyond Kant's practical reasoning, the "root" of our modern theories, to assert that in the moral debates of this world, we must have the courage and willingness to not compromise with the truth about ethics. Thus he concludes, "Stubbornness in itself is no virtue; knowing what cannot be compromised in a hostile environment certainly is."

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