Table of Contents

Section I: Visions of Contemporary Chastity

1. Chastity and the Well-Lived Life

Jennifer A. Herdt

2. Sexuality as Secularly Sacred

Alexander R. Pruss

3. Contemporary Chastity Still Consists in Principles of Temperance, Justice, and Prudence

Eric J. Silverman

4. Chastity, Lust, and Practical Wisdom

Michael Beaty

Section II: The Limits and Dangers of Chastity

5. Is Chastity a Virtue?

Alan H. Goldman

6. Chastity, Power Dynamics, and Enduring Spousal Love

R. Mary Hayden Lemmons

Section III: Culturally Contextualized Expressions of Chastity

7. Finding Chastity in a Secular Age: Chastity as a Virtue of Sexual Autonomy

Nancy E. Snow

8. Cephalus: A Quotidian Case for Chastity in Republic I

Kevin Kambo

9. The Family as the Foundation of the Confucian Ethical Order

Benjamin Huff

Section IV: Chastity and Objectification

10. Sexual Temperance and Sexual Objectification

Raja Halwani

11. Objectification, Indication, and Chastity

Dustin Crummett

Section V: Specific Applications of Chastity

12. Chastity in the Workplace

Chris Tweedt

13. A Renewed Chastity for a New Era: An Aretaic Response to Contemporary Pornography

Joseph Prud’homme

About the Author

Eric J. Silverman is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Christopher Newport University. He has written two monographs: The Supremacy of Love: An Agape Centered Vision of Aristotelian Virtue Ethics (2019) and The Prudence of Love: How Possessing the Virtue of Love Benefits the Agent (2010). He has also co-edited Paradise Understood: New Philosophical Essays About Heaven (2017).

Reviews

"Chastity is a virtue easily misunderstood. To a secular ear it sounds outdated, old-fashioned, and paternalistic. This collection of essays offers a fresh and valuable perspective on the virtue of chastity in a secular age. The contributors provide insightful positions on the strengths and weaknesses of chastity while elucidating its role as a guiding virtue for sexual activity." – Audra Goodnight, Villanova University, USA