Pagan Virtue and Christian Prudence

Over against Christianity, John Casey seeks to revive pagan notions and patterns of the cardinal virtues. He highlights the importance of anger in the pagan pattern and connects it to courage, to pride, and ultimately to friendship. I argue that his notion of friendship is overly formal and more modern than ancient pagan. Nonetheless, his treatment of pagan virtue helps clarify why Christians, with Aquinas and contra paganism, assert the primacy of prudence, qualified as infused prudence informed by charity. Only within this context can Christian ideas about anger and pride be set forth.