Duty or Virtue: Which Does the Church Need More?
DELIVERED BY
Tim Jacobs
A FREE ZOOM LECTURE + Q&A
Date
Thursday October 20, 2022
LOCATION
Zoom
TIME
8:00pm ET
Many Christians assume morality starts with duty to commands. We search the Bible looking for commands to obey. Yet swiftly we invent new rules, and eventually accidental legalism is born. Even healthy churches struggle with this subtle moralism that breeds Pharisaism, with honesty sacrificed for appearances, or compassion for authoritarianism. How can we reform our view of duty?
In this lecture, Tim Jacobs will show how biblical commands point us to the more fundamental source of ethics: the natural law based in human nature, which is itself founded on God’s nature. Attendees will learn the sources and dangers of duty-based ethics, the case for New Testament virtue ethics, and how the Reformed tradition has understood virtue. This talk will make use of Aristotle, Aquinas, John Calvin, Peter Martyr Vermigli, and Jonathan Edwards.
The lecture will be followed by an open Q&A.
WHAT ARE FELLOWS LECTURES?
Davenant Fellows Lectures are free, public lectures hosted monthly via Zoom throughout the academic year. They aim to showcase the scholarly expertise of our Davenant Hall faculty, and to provide a bank of high-quality lectures freely available online. Lectures are recorded, with both video and audio being made available after the event. To access past lectures, visit our YouTube or podcast archives.
Schedule
8:00-8:45 Pm:
“Duty or Virtue: Which Does the Church Need More?” by Tim Jacobs
8:45-9:15Pm:
Open Q&A
Our Speaker
TIM JACOBS
PHD CANDIDATE, UNIVERSITY OF ST. THOMAS, TX
Tim Jacobs lectures in Philosophy at Davenant Hall. He specializes in ancient and medieval philosophy, virtue, natural law, metaphysics, and classical logic, and has published several articles as well as contributed to Four Views on Christian Metaphysics, Jonathan Edwards Encyclopedia, and Lexham Bible Dictionary. His lifelong aim is to invest in the health of the church by reviving the unity between philosophy and theology. He lives with his wife and three kids in California. Visit his WEBSITE, and follow him on Twitter @TLJACOBSTLJ.
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Register now for
our Fellows Lecture
Registrants will be emailed the Zoom link for the lecture a short time before the event.
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If you would like to learn more about Davenant Hall and our faculty, visit the Davenant Hall website to see our current courses.