Wednesday, August 15, 2018

References to Venerable Matt Talbot in "Aquinas on Virtue"

In Chapter 11 titled Rethinking Infusion  (https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/j.ctt1t89k5h.16.pdf#page=3&zoom=auto,-82,18) from his book, Aquinas on Virtue, Georgetown University Press (2017), Nicholas Austin makes the following statements regarding Matt Talbot:

At the top of page 5 of this pdf, is this quote:
"Michael S. Sherwin helpfully illustrates the idea with the case of Matthew Talbot, an Irish laborer and alcoholic who underwent a conversion, gave up drink, and dedicated his life to prayer and service of the poor. While he “radically reoriented his life towards God,” it remained true that “he still retained,
especially in the beginning, a strong desire (and inclination) to continue drinking and to return to his former way of life.” In Aquinas’s viewpoint, Sherwin suggests, Talbot has the infused virtue of temperance but finds it difficult to act temperately.

At the top of page 6, “In the case of Matt Talbot, Sherwin suggests, “At the moment of his conversion, the infused virtues empowered him to live soberly, even as he continued to feel a burning desire to drink.”

At the bottom of page 6, the author states: “In the case of Matt Talbot, it is more plausible to say not that he possesses infused temperance yet still experiences the inclination to sin but rather that he possesses continence or self-control.”