If you were to ask Catholics of a certain generation to explain why a particular act (take adultery as just one representative example) should be classified as a sin, you would likely hear that it was “forbidden” or “violated a rule.” More likely today, you might encounter a more fulsome explanation: “a sin refers to a bad act,” “something against human nature, that carries its own sad consequence” (CCC 1849).
The recovery of this method of moral reasoning—Bible-based and grounded in the teaching of the fathers of the Church and that of St. Thomas Aquinas—stands as one of the happy fruits of the last half-century of Catholic moral thought. Put simply, at least some people today recognize more fully than during times past the true nature of the Christian moral life.
It is said “success has many fathers” but, in this case, few contributions stand as significant as that of Alasdair MacIntyre (1929-2025). Perhaps more than any other person (save Pope John Paul II) MacIntyre is responsible for this happy recovery of the fullness of the truth about the moral life.
Last week the world lost, by many reasonable estimates, the most significant philosopher in the English-speaking world. A convert from Marxism to Aristotelianism, to Thomism, and eventually to Catholicism, Alasdair MacIntyre was one of a kind. Proud of the fact that he never himself earned a PhD (he was awarded some ten honorary doctorates), this professor for the last forty years at the University of Notre Dame, enjoyed a kind of cult-like status among Catholics—and others—who appreciated his monumental achievement. The combination of Thomist philosophy and social justice advocacy in economics found in Leo XIII had its contemporary expositor in Alasdair MacIntyre.
For the last several decades, Alasdair MacIntyre has occupied a privileged place in contemporary moral thought. He remains the most well-known English language promoter of the recovery of virtue-based moral reasoning. Nearly forty-five years after his groundbreaking “After Virtue,” readers remain fascinated by his portrayal of virtue-based reasoning and its frightening alternatives.
Philosophers and ethicists remain grateful that he completed his moral trilogy— “After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory” (1981), “Whose Justice? Which Rationality?” (1988), and “Three Rival Versions of Moral Enquiry: Encyclopedia, Genealogy, and Tradition” (1990). After that achievement, MacIntyre turned his energies toward a robust examination of neglected aspects of human anthropology in his “Dependent Rational Animals: Why Human Beings Need the Virtues” (1999).
MacIntyre’s emphasis on the virtues received magisterial approval with the 1993 encyclical of John Paul II “Veritatis splendor.” Like others in the virtue-ethics tradition, MacIntyre eschewed rule-based ethical reasoning. In his critique of moral methods which rely too heavily on abstract rules, he echoed the likes of Dominican theologians Servais Pinckaers and Romanus Cessario. Virtue-ethicists like MacIntyre confidently affirmed the role of prudence in determining sound moral action.
Some have criticized MacIntyre for relativizing moral matters. While his attention to the context of human acting—as opposed to the rule-based thought of deontological ethicists—could be misconstrued, in truth he denies any multiplicity to human flourishing. Truth be told, the virtue-ethics of Alasdair MacIntryre is far less susceptible to manipulation than the various forms of moral casuistry co-opted by contemporary consequentialist moral philosophers and theologians. MacIntyre’s entire corpus deserves a wide readership, and readers are in his debt for his achievement.
I was blessed on several occasions to hear MacIntyre lecture. You always knew you were in the presence of a giant. I suspect the likes of him we will not see for a while. He concluded his 1981 “After Virtue” with the remark that the world awaits a new—albeit very different—Benedict (referring of course to St. Benedict of Norcia who recovered the glories of western learning and culture in the sixth century).
That remark was widely recalled after the 2005 election of Pope Benedict XVI. It should not be lost on history that MacIntyre went to his eternal reward shortly after the election of a pope who took the name of the pontiff who explicitly called for a renewal of Thomist thought and put it to use for the common man.
In the whole intellectual history of those working in the United States Alasdair MacIntyre will be remembered for making a singular contribution. We remain in his debt as we thank God for the gift that he was—and that his work remains—for the Church and the world.
Father Ryan W. Connors is the rector of Our Lady of Providence Seminary
