Perpetuum studium et exercitationem mortificandae carnis
Abstract
Many scholars have argued and assumed that Protestantism broke away from virtue ethics. However, recent scholarship has revealed that it is not necessarily the case. This article’s aim is to go a step further than that. It will explore the subject even more fully by digging deeper into a specific element of virtue ethics in Calvin, namely, his thought on habit formation. I argue that Calvin’s distinctive habit formation plays a significant role in his ethics. In my analysis, although Calvin appreciates the limit of habit’s power, he emphasizes the significance of divinely initiated and guided habit formation.
This paper has been withdrawn.