Leading Virtue

'Leading Virtue' explores the use of Alasdair MacIntyre's tradition based model of ethics as a heuristic tool in analysing the contextualisation of Christian ethics. Ethical contextualisation is understood as the interaction and synthesis of particular Christian moral traditions with the moral traditions encountered in the different cultures where the Christian faith was established. This study argues that morality in African cultures may be better understood as discrete traditions. This claim is substantiated by historical and empirical studies of the Fante (Akan) and Methodist moral traditions and their interaction. These studies yield credible evidence that a Fante-Methodist moral tradition is emerging out of the encounter between the two traditions at the level of leadership practice. The resulting synthesis can serve as a model for the contextualisation of Christian ethics in other cultures.

Autorentext

The Author: Brian K. Jennings holds a B.A. in Philosophy from the University of Nottingham, an M.Phil. in Religious Studies from the Open University, and a Ph.D. in Theology from the University of Birmingham. He worked for many years as a teacher of Religious Education for schools in the West Midlands. From 1989 he has served as a lecturer at Ghana Christian University College in Accra (Ghana). Brian K. Jennings is also an ordained minister of the Churches of Christ in Great Britain.

Inhalt

Contents: African moral discourse as examples of MacIntyre's tradition-based model of ethics - The virtues and ends of African moral traditions - The virtues and ends of the Fante (Akan) moral tradition - The virtue and ends of the Methodist Moral tradition - The interaction of Fante and Methodist moral traditions in Ghana - Empirical study of leadership among Fante Methodist ministers and traditional rulers - Synthesis at the level of leadership virtues - Model for contextualisation of Christian ethics.