Designed For Good: Recovering the Idea, Language, and Practice of Virtue

Kevin J. Brown's Designed for Good is a study of classical virtue ethics from a Christian perspective. This book shows Christians that their faith contains resources to help them recover the idea of virtue in the face of our modern moral bewilderment.


Although we may not realize it, we live in a world that is full of competing ethical systems. Appeals to rights, personal freedom, or even equality often come with their own ?meta-values.? Each of these values has something in common with the Christian message, but none of them tells the whole story.


In this Christian take on classical virtue ethics, Brown weaves in modern-day examples from economics, politics, and pop culture to create a relevant framework that relates faith to contemporary ethical questions. Brown argues that true virtue?the kind we can actually strive for in our day-to-day lives'requires a holistic vision of the good life, not a list of rules determined by our preferences or the latest market trends. Instead, it is precisely what we were designed for by our Creator: life in the community of Christ's body, the church. Virtue then becomes the pursuit of wholeness in harmony with God's design.


Brown introduces the problem of modern ethics and analyzes common ?meta-values? that readers will likely have encountered in their workplaces, schools, and possibly even churches. Readers will especially resonate with the second half of the book, where Brown outlines the foundations of the holistic, Christian concept of virtue: ?to act justly, and love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.?


-Publisher