Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T06:14:09.216Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Hypocrisy as a challenge to Christian belief

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 April 2017

J. W. SCHULZ*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy and Theology, DeSales University, Center Valley, PA 18034, USA

Abstract

Hypocrisy challenges religious belief in two ways. Arguments to Absurdity contend hypocrisy is defeasible evidence of the irrationality of a doctrine or practice. Arguments from Betrayal contend that hypocrisy confronts institutionally loyal believers with a tragic dilemma: that because loyalty is justified by the goodness of its object, hypocrisy requires believers to sacrifice either their conscience (to remain loyal) or their character and identity (by abandoning their loyalty). This article presents philosophical and theological reasons that both arguments are unpersuasive.

Type
Original Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aristotle (1998) Politics, Reeve, C. D. C. (tr.) (Indianapolis: Hackett).Google Scholar
Aristotle (1999) Nicomachean Ethics, Irwin, T. (tr.), 2nd edn (Indianapolis: Hackett).Google Scholar
Aquinas, St Thomas (1920) The Summa Theologiæ of St. Thomas Aquinas, Fathers of the English Dominican Province (tr.), 2nd edn (London: Burn, Oates, & Washbourn Ltd).Google Scholar
Bottan, Nicholas & Perez-Truglia, Ricardo (2015) ‘Losing my religion: the effects of religious scandals on religious participation and charitable giving’, Journal of Public Economics, 129, 106119.Google Scholar
Budziszewski, J. (2014) On the Meaning of Sex (Wilmington DE: Intercollegiate Studies Institute).Google Scholar
Burke, Edmund (2006) Reflections on the Revolution in France (Dover Publications).Google Scholar
Curzer, Howard (2012) Aristotle and the Virtues (Oxford: Oxford University Press).Google Scholar
Durkheim, Emile (2008) The Elementary Form of Religious Life (Oxford: Oxford University Press).Google Scholar
Hauerwaus, Stanley (1991) A Community of Character: Towards A Constructive Christian Social Ethic (South Bend IN: University of Notre Dame Press).Google Scholar
Herdt, Jennifer (2008) Putting on Virtue (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).Google Scholar
Hume, David (1998) Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, Popkin, R. (ed.), 2nd edn (Indianapolis: Hackett).Google Scholar
James, William (1992) Writings 1878–1899 (New York: Library of America).Google Scholar
John Paul, Pope II (2014) Gratissimum Sane, ‘Letter to Families’ (Rome: Libreria Editrice Vaticana).Google Scholar
Jollimore, Troy (2013) On Loyalty (New York: Routledge).Google Scholar
Keller, Simon (2007) The Limits of Loyalty (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).Google Scholar
Kleinig, John (2014) On Loyalty and Loyalties: The Contours of a Problematic Virtue (Oxford: Oxford University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, C. S. (1971) The Four Loves (New York: Mariner Books).Google Scholar
Lozano, José-Félix (2012) ‘Educating responsible managers: the role of university ethos’, Journal of Academic Ethics, 10, 213226.Google Scholar
Macintyre, Alasdair (1998) ‘Politics, philosophy, and the common good’, in The MacIntyre Reader, Knight, K. (ed.) (South Bend IN: University of Notre Dame Press), 235254.Google Scholar
Macintyre, Alasdair (2001) Dependent Rational Animals: Why Human Beings Need the Virtues (Peru IL: Open Court).Google Scholar
Macintyre, Alasdair (2007) After Virtue, 3rd edn (University of Notre Dame Press).Google Scholar
Pennington, Juliet (2015) ‘Mark Ruffalo slams “hypocrisy” of Catholicism: it “chilled my relationship” with the Church’, People Magazine, published online, 29 October 2010, <http://www.people.com/celebrity/mark-ruffalo-talks-hypocrisy-of-catholic-church-at-spotlight-premiere/>..>Google Scholar
Plato (2016) The Republic of Plato, Bloom, A. (tr.), 3rd edn (New York: Basic Books).Google Scholar
Sandel, Michael (1998) Liberalism and the Limits of Justice (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).Google Scholar
Schulz, Joshua (2013) ‘Review of Troy Jollimore's On Loyalty’, Catholic Social Science Review, 18, 224227.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scruton, Roger (2006) A Political Philosophy: Arguments for Conservatism (London: Continuum).Google Scholar
Siedentop, Larry (2014) Inventing the Individual: The Origins of Western Liberalism (Cambridge MA: Belknap Press).Google Scholar
Sipes, Richard (2010) ‘Secret Sex in the Celibate System’, National Catholic Reporter. 28 April 2010, <https://www.ncronline.org/blogs/examining-crisis/secret-sex-celibate-system > .+.>Google Scholar
Taylor, Charles (1992) Sources of the Self (Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press).Google Scholar
Tolkein, J. R. R. (1954) The Lord of the Rings (London: Allen & Unwin).Google Scholar
Williams, Bernard (1973) ‘The Makropoulos case: reflections on the tedium of immortality’, in Problems of the Self, Williams, B. (ed.) (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 82100.Google Scholar
Wolf, Susan (1982) ‘Moral saints’, Journal of Philosophy, 79, 419439.Google Scholar