This dissertation analyzes the Christian doctrine of grace in conversation with secular
moral philosophy, highlighting its relevance to virtue cultivation within and beyond religious
contexts. This is an unusual connection, admittedly, but properly understood, grace addresses key
ethical issues such as moral development, moral psychology, moral luck, the limits and structure
of human agency, and the importance of social conditions that hinder moral development.
Though born in the teachings of ancient people who followed Jesus Christ, and subsequently
historically entangled with supernatural varieties of Christian theology, the concept of grace has
far wider relevance. By setting it within an existentialist and materialist framework, this
dissertation explores the complex interaction between institutional, biological, and psychological
factors that influence moral judgment and shape human decision making. The work gives special
attention to Paul Tillich’s naturalistic conception of grace as “acceptance,” influenced by
Augustinian, Hegelian, and existentialist thought, and proposes grace as a necessary condition
for moral growth. In line with Tillich, it suggests that the experience of grace can help manage
the estrangement caused by the awareness of life’s finitude and the entrapments of our temporal
existence. However, Tillich’s use of symbolic language to describe religious experiences
attributed acceptance to a non-agential God without disclosing the ontological or causal nature of
the experience of grace, thereby creating a gap between the consequences of acceptance and its
concrete facilitation in the absence of divine agency. This dissertation closes that gap by
rearticulating grace in existentialist and intersubjective terms, clarifying Tillich’s position and
bridging the divide between Christian theology and secular philosophical ethics. Analyzing the
historical development of existential philosophy, this dissertation further argues against the view
of existentialism as inherently anti-religious or nihilistic, and critiques recent interpretations of
Tillich’s work as primarily influenced by Neoplatonic Christian theology, instead reaffirming his
existentialist roots and the inspiration he drew from German idealism. In the final chapters, the
dissertation explores the concept of intersubjectivity and its decisive role in the emergence of
values and moral systems in order to illuminate how grace is extended and received between
persons. The dissertation concludes with a case study illustrating the practical import of grace in
contemporary ethics, suggesting that gracious interactions can lead to structural changes that
positively impact life outcomes. The cumulative argument suggests that traditional supernatural
theologies of grace and contemporary moral philosophy may have much more in common than is
typically assumed, at least when the concept of grace is reinterpreted through an existentialist
lens. / 2027-06-04T00:00:00Z
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bu.edu/oai:open.bu.edu:2144/48973 |
| Date | 04 June 2024 |
| Creators | Thomas, Taylor Marie |
| Contributors | Wildman, Wesley J., Wariboko, Nimi |
| Source Sets | Boston University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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