David Elliot
David Elliot is Associate Professor of Moral Theology and the Grace P. Hobelman Chair in Catholic Moral Theology at the Catholic University of America, with a specialization in fundamental Catholic moral theology, virtue ethics, and the moral theology of St. Thomas Aquinas. He received his Ph.D. in moral theology at the University of Notre Dame in 2014, and was awarded a 3-year postdoctoral fellowship as Research Associate in Theological Ethics at the University of Cambridge, coming to CUA in 2017. He is the author of one monograph and eighteen journal articles and book chapters invited or already in print.
Elliot’s first book, Hope and Christian Ethics (Cambridge University Press, 2017) offered a Thomistic account of how Christian hope contributes to human happiness and the common good while aiming at eternal beatitude. It received highly positive book reviews and was described as “a uniquely significant contribution to Christian ethics” and setting “a benchmark for studies in virtue ethics.” His second book project on “spiritual training” focuses on the crucial role St. Thomas Aquinas assigns to moral and spiritual practices in the growth of Christian virtue, allowing us to see a deeply rewarding practical side to the “common and universal Doctor of the Church.”
Elliot has taught moral theology at the Catholic University, Notre Dame, and Cambridge University, and co-organized academic conferences at each. He is the co-editor for a scholarly volume with CUA Press and co-edited a special SCE journal issue on “Virtue, Habit, and Grace in Thomas Aquinas.” He also serves on the CUA Press Editorial Committee, is an Editorial Board member of Studies in Christian Ethics, and recently completed a 3-year term on the leadership of the Thomas Aquinas Consultation of the Catholic Theological Society of America. From 2015-2022 Elliot was a Research Associate (non-residential) of the Von Hügel Institute, University of Cambridge. He has been awarded multiple grants and fellowships, including “The Character Essay and Book Prize” by the Templeton Foundation funded Character Project for contributions to the study of character. In Spring 2024 Elliot was installed as the inaugural Grace P. Hobelman Endowed Chair in Catholic Moral Theology.
Phone: 201-319-6504
Address: School of Theology and Religious Studies
The Catholic University of America
Washington, DC 20064
Elliot’s first book, Hope and Christian Ethics (Cambridge University Press, 2017) offered a Thomistic account of how Christian hope contributes to human happiness and the common good while aiming at eternal beatitude. It received highly positive book reviews and was described as “a uniquely significant contribution to Christian ethics” and setting “a benchmark for studies in virtue ethics.” His second book project on “spiritual training” focuses on the crucial role St. Thomas Aquinas assigns to moral and spiritual practices in the growth of Christian virtue, allowing us to see a deeply rewarding practical side to the “common and universal Doctor of the Church.”
Elliot has taught moral theology at the Catholic University, Notre Dame, and Cambridge University, and co-organized academic conferences at each. He is the co-editor for a scholarly volume with CUA Press and co-edited a special SCE journal issue on “Virtue, Habit, and Grace in Thomas Aquinas.” He also serves on the CUA Press Editorial Committee, is an Editorial Board member of Studies in Christian Ethics, and recently completed a 3-year term on the leadership of the Thomas Aquinas Consultation of the Catholic Theological Society of America. From 2015-2022 Elliot was a Research Associate (non-residential) of the Von Hügel Institute, University of Cambridge. He has been awarded multiple grants and fellowships, including “The Character Essay and Book Prize” by the Templeton Foundation funded Character Project for contributions to the study of character. In Spring 2024 Elliot was installed as the inaugural Grace P. Hobelman Endowed Chair in Catholic Moral Theology.
Phone: 201-319-6504
Address: School of Theology and Religious Studies
The Catholic University of America
Washington, DC 20064
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Books by David Elliot
Journal Articles by David Elliot
‘training’ (exercitium) in St. Thomas Aquinas’ account of infused virtue
growth. The traditional practice of spiritual training or discipline
confronted the dangers of mediocrity, lukewarmness, and relapse in the
moral life, seeking further to train us into virtuous conduct through
prayer, fasting, vigils, recitation of psalms, examination of conscience,
meditation on Scripture, and so forth. Thomas strongly advocated this
praxis as crucial to infused virtue growth. I examine the concept of
spiritual training as he knew it, and in particular bring into view the
unfamiliar context and landscape which gave it intelligibility. To this end
I articulate the patristic and medieval sources which he relied upon and
show what is distinctive in his account relative to that of contemporaries.
While his account is not parochial to Dominican life, I argue that the
Order’s literature regulating the formation of friars sheds crucial light on
how Thomas conceived of spiritual training in practice, and conclude by
suggesting some implications for moral theology and virtue theory.
Book Chapters by David Elliot
Book Reviews by David Elliot
‘training’ (exercitium) in St. Thomas Aquinas’ account of infused virtue
growth. The traditional practice of spiritual training or discipline
confronted the dangers of mediocrity, lukewarmness, and relapse in the
moral life, seeking further to train us into virtuous conduct through
prayer, fasting, vigils, recitation of psalms, examination of conscience,
meditation on Scripture, and so forth. Thomas strongly advocated this
praxis as crucial to infused virtue growth. I examine the concept of
spiritual training as he knew it, and in particular bring into view the
unfamiliar context and landscape which gave it intelligibility. To this end
I articulate the patristic and medieval sources which he relied upon and
show what is distinctive in his account relative to that of contemporaries.
While his account is not parochial to Dominican life, I argue that the
Order’s literature regulating the formation of friars sheds crucial light on
how Thomas conceived of spiritual training in practice, and conclude by
suggesting some implications for moral theology and virtue theory.
(Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2017). x + 236 pp. £22.99/US$32.00. ISBN 978-0-8028-7359-0
Reviewed by: David Elliot, Catholic University of America, Washington, DC