John XXIII and the Hand Grenade

Imagine that Pope John XXIII had gone on a mission to convert a group of Mafiosi. A live hand grenade was thrown into the meeting and John flung himself on the grenade in order to save the lives of the assembled cut-throats. Did he perform a moral act? Not at all, argues Hadley Arkes of Amherst College in a brilliant and sometimes brilliantly wrong new book, First Things: An Inquiry into the First Principles of Morals and Justice.

Of course John’s act was dramatic in its radical selflessness; some might call it heroic or even saintly; but that does not make it good. According to Arkes, “He would not be acting in a commendable way if he subordinated his own purposes to those of the gangsters.” And that is simply because Pope John’s purposes were morally good and theirs were not. Intentions and altruistic impulses do not change the moral logic of the matter.

RJ

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Richard John Neuhaus

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Imagine that Pope John XXIII had gone on a mission to convert a group of Mafiosi. A live hand grenade was thrown into the meeting and John flung himself on the grenade in order to save the lives of the assembled cut-throats. Did he perform a moral act? Not at all, argues Hadley Arkes of Amherst College in a brilliant and sometimes brilliantly wrong new book, First Things: An Inquiry into the First Principles of Morals and Justice.

Of course John’s act was dramatic in its radical selflessness; some might call it heroic or even saintly; but that does not make it good. According to Arkes, “He would not be acting in a commendable way if he subordinated his own purposes to those of the gangsters.” And that is simply because Pope John’s purposes were morally good and theirs were not. Intentions and altruistic impulses do not change the moral logic of the matter.