The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 11.0442  Monday, 6 March 2000.

From:           Sean Lawrence <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Thursday, 02 Mar 2000 10:59:42 -0800
Subject: 11.0430 Re: Double Time in MforM
Comment:        Re: SHK 11.0430 Re: Double Time in MforM

Paul Swanson suggests:

>Perhaps what all this adds up to is that personal morality needs must be
>at odds with political morality. There is a difference between the
>President and the presidency. Sometimes one must commit a personal moral
>wrong for the sake of the general good; likewise, to maintain personal
>moral purity can perhaps come at the expense of the general welfare of a
>people.

I like this suggestion, and I think that it addresses a number of issues
in the early modern period-for instance, should election be expressed in
works?  Is monastic asceticism a replacement for good works?  One of the
homilies (I forget which, but it's probably obvious from the title)
stresses the importance of a 'lively faith', one which takes the form of
generosity and giving.  I'd like to suggest a thesis which, I think,
builds on yours: 'private morality' might be, at some level,
fundamentally immoral in that it's self-centered, even selfish.  Moli     

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