Resilience and the Virtue of Fortitude | Craig Steven Titus

Resilience and the Virtue of Fortitude: Aquinas in Dialogue with the Psychosocial Sciences

Extended Synopsis

Empirical research and virtue ethics find a fitting match in their respective studies of resilience and fortitude. The concept of resilience involves personal and social capacities to cope with difficulty, resist destruction under hardship, and construct something positive out of an otherwise negative situation. While the terminology of resilience may be modern, the human phenomenon is ancient, having been attested to for millennia by poets, philosophers, and spiritual writers who praised it in the language of the virtues.

In Resilience and the Virtue of Fortitude, Craig Steven Titus offers a philosophical and theological basis for a hearty understanding of the human person. He focuses on the virtues that enable human beings to overcome difficulty when faced with fear, suffering, or the need for imaginative daring and hope—primarily the virtue of fortitude. Employing the thought of Thomas Aquinas and his sources, Titus uses a dialogical method to critically appropriate reflections from psychosocial sciences. This vibrant natural-law approach to ethical norms recognizes a theological transformation of human capacities, proposing the New Law of grace, Christ's teaching, and the infused virtues as vital bases for Christian ethics.

Reader Targeting

• Theologians and ethicists exploring the intersections of Thomistic philosophy and modern science.
• Psychologists and clinicians interested in the historical, moral, and spiritual dimensions of human resilience.
• Academics and students of moral anthropology, Catholic moral theology, and virtue ethics.

About the Author

Craig Steven Titus is a research professor at the Institute for the Psychological Sciences and serves as a lecturer and researcher at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. An accomplished academic, he is the editor of The Person and the Polis and coeditor of Servais Pinckaers's renowned The Pinckaers Reader.

Accolades & Awards

"With admirable deftness and an impressive command of contemporary research into Aquinas's moral anthropology and the psychosocial sciences, Titus brings Aquinas's moral anthropology into dialogue with modern psychology... Anyone looking for a scholarly treatment of these subjects will do well to study this important and groundbreaking work." — Giuseppe Butera, Religious Studies Review

"In this scholarly and closely reasoned book, Titus puts the findings of psychosocial sciences into a conversation... with Thomas Aquinas' moral theory... The arguments presented in this book open new territory for those interested in the study of Aquinas and the broader field of virtue ethics." — Glen Ebisch, Catholic Library World

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