Citation

Shin W. Religions (Basel) 2020; 11(5).

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, MDPI: Multidisciplinary Digital Publications Institute)

DOI

10.3390/rel11050244

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This paper aims to reimagine anger, which has been traditionally understood as one of the capital vices in Christian traditions, as a moral virtue of the oppressed in their resistance against structural injustice. This essay first examines the contemporary discussions on anger in the field of Christian ethics. Then, I critically evaluate Lisa Tessman's account of "burdened virtues" and argue for a possibility that anger can be constructive in contributing to the flourishing of the oppressed. This paper argues that the oppressed can transform burdened anger into thriving anger that is conducive to their own flourishing through the communal bearing of the burden. This paper provides empirical support for this argument: a comparative analysis of a suicide protest of a college student and life-affirming protest of the mothers and wives of political victims against the totalitarian regime of Park Chung-hee in South Korea, 1970-1979. © 2020 by the author. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

Language: en

Keywords

Anger; Flourishing; Burdened virtue; Moral virtue; Political resistance; The oppressed