Abstract

At stake in the virtue-obligation controversy in contemporary religious ethics and moral philosophy has been the proper characterization of these two notions and the degree to which each is able to illuminate moral experience. Four familiar examples are used to identify the kind of things typically pointed to by the language of virtue and obligation. Proposals relevant to the topic at hand advanced by Anscombe and Gustafson are critically assessed. The author concludes that religious ethics seem to require a conjoining of virtue and obligation notions in order to make the full range of its claims and program clear.