EXTRA: My New Essay at The Dispatch
The False Battle Between Justice and Mercy
I have a new essay out at The Dispatch today in the Dispatch Faith channel. In the essay, I chime in on recent debates over justice and mercy—hoping, among other things, to clarify some of the inexplicable current discourse calling empathy a sin. (Spoiler alert: nothing that is a virtue is a sin. Sin goes by other names.)
Here is a taste:
A virtue consists of the proper balance of a particular quality between its excess and its deficiency, and a vice is too much or too little of an otherwise good quality or characteristic. Too much confidence, for example, is the vice of vanity. Too little is the vice of timidity. Healthy pride embraces the human dignity that belongs to us all. Lack of effort is sloth, and too much effort is frenzy, but moderation between these two extremes achieves the virtue of diligence. A lack of courage is the vice of cowardice. An excess of the same quality becomes brazenness or recklessness. Doing harm through recklessness, even in the process of attempting to do good, fails the test of courage. Similarly, justice and mercy require avoiding both excess and deficiency.
You can read the entire essay here.
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Portia's speech is some of the loveliest language in all of Shakespeare. Your essay was Very Aristotelian. I enjoyed it.
I reflected on this topic briefly in a recent essay. I think many of us are thinking about justice and mercy as political tensions increase. You put it all together for me in this one, adding the academic/literary connection I needed and your specialty of defining words. There is comfort in knowing that this has been an age-old topic of discussion. Excellent, as always.