Reclaiming Anger - Readwise Highlights
Metadata
- Author: Kerry Walters
- Full Title: Reclaiming Anger
- Category: articles
- Summary: Anger can be a just response to injustice, and it should not be condemned as a vice. Lactantius argues that both God and humans can experience righteous anger, motivated by a desire to correct wrongs. We should reclaim anger as a virtue, reflecting compassion and a commitment to justice.
- URL: https://kerrywalters.substack.com/p/reclaiming-anger
Highlights
- To determine if it’s ever appropriate to ascribe anger to God, Lactantius scrutinizes four possibilities:
“Either anger must be attributed to God, and kindness [gratia] taken from Him; or both alike must be taken from Him; or anger must be taken away, and kindness attibuted to Him; or neither must be taken away. The nature of the case admits of nothing else besides these.” (II.260) (View Highlight)
- even if we concede that the Epicurean understanding of God deserves consideration, the opportunity cost is a devaluation of rectitude in mortals. A God incapable of kindness or anger is obviously morally indifferent to human behavior. (View Highlight)
- Aristotle says, “he who is angry at the right things and with the right people, and, further, as he ought, when he ought, and as long as he ought, is praiseworthy.” (View Highlight)