Art and Moral Change: A Reexamination

A first-of-its-kind critical overview of how art leads to moral action in the field of theological ethics

One question that remains insufficiently addressed in theological ethics is the question of how art leads to moral action. While many modernist theories consider art to be a morally irrelevant activity, others think that the arts, and the emotions they elicit, are integral to moral formation and justice. Challenging both kinds of theories, Art and Moral Change proposes that art is essential because it is an inevitable source of moral disagreement.

Drawing on the work of Jonathan Edwards and many others in theology, philosophy, and literary studies, Art and Moral Change argues that the arts are the cultural mediums through which we can better understand what is morally possible in the midst of difference. The arts, in other words, can serve as snapshots of a particular community's perspectives on the good life, offering glimpses not only of competing moral visions within society but also of the extent to which these contested moral views are reconcilable. Thus, the arts reveal the limits of moral reasoning, confirm the contextuality of moral discernment, and necessitate moral thinking that is dialogical and dialectical.

Art and Moral Change provides a first-of-its-kind critical overview of how the field of theological ethics approaches and should utilize aesthetics. The core premise--that paying attention to art encourages us to appreciate the ethical importance of disagreement, difference, and conflict--will foster greater understanding of aesthetics and ethics for students and scholars of theological, social, and virtue ethics.