Thomas Aquinas tells us that there is "righteous (i.e., justifiable) anger."*
Such anger is morally right when aroused by injustice:
...In his Summa theologiae, Aquinas explains that anger is, fundamentally, one of the passions of the soul. “Passion” is a somewhat antiquated term, but it is similar to (although not quite synonymous with) the more familiar term “emotion.” The point is that anger is a natural phenomenon of human existence. From the standpoint of Christian theological anthropology, this means anger is not inherently evil. We know this because anything that is truly “natural” belongs to God’s creation which is called good from the very beginning (Gen. 1:31).
Understood generically, the passion we call “anger” is something good. It is defined by a desire for vindication — the vindication that belongs to justice (ST I-II.46.2). It is a desire to see God’s order restored in creation and in human society. When we witness actions that are opposed to that order, there is a morally right response to those actions: anger. As with all the passions (fear, joy, sadness, desire, etc.), anger manifests itself as a bodily response. We feel anger; we don’t just think it.
On these terms, we can understand why anger is a virtue. The passion of anger is a response to something that we have deemed to be wrong with the world. It reflects a judgment about the way things ought to be. This judgment is a movement of the will. When our reason and our passions are rightly ordered, we recognize injustice for what it is, and we feel angry about it. As Aquinas explains, in instances where a person witnesses injustice but does not feel anger, “The lack of anger is a sign that the judgment of reason is lacking” (ST II-II.158.8 ad 3). The absence of anger can be a vice....
Why this post? Well, yesterday the Sage of West Virginia referred to "self-righteous anger" as belonging only to God. He can be forgiven; he's not a devotee of Aquinas. But then, another blogger came around with something that is pertinent.
...every society that has successfully developed into a civilization has an elite that not only practices some form of noblesse oblige, but holds the members of the elite fully accountable to objective laws that are not substantially different than the laws the plebs must obey.
In short, to rule, one will be held responsible. To rule successfully, one must be capable of responsibly looking after the interests of the ruled.
Any elite that does not do so is viewed, correctly, as parasitical and illegitimate, and in Chinese terms, does not hold the Mandate of Heaven. And if there is one thing that is clear about the current Clown World super-regime, it is that it is illegitimate by its own self-proclaimed standard of democracy and its laws are entirely subjective. Which is why Clown World, like Babylon, is going to fall....
He's not an optimist, is he? But he does point out the reason(s) for morally licit, justifiable, righteous anger.
And there's a lot of that out there.
(Yes, I know that the FEEBS will 'call on me' at my home.)
*Grim has more on the topic which is necessary reading.
5 comments:
I counted 117 versus in the Bible with the word anger…..
https://www.drbo.org/cgi-bin/s?q=Anger&b=drb&t=0&r=111
I will contemplate righteous anger in the context of scripture later today
There's a significant difference between "passion" as Aquinas is using it and "emotion" as the article suggests. When Aquinas speaks of a passion, he's using a term that is a cognate with 'passive' because it isn't chosen or intentional: passions are things that happen to you, not actions of your own.
As a result, the question Aquinas has to be interested in is whether or not you ought to entertain the passion or act upon it. This is a very technical and lengthy discussion, one that arrives at the conclusion that the most excellent men are also most caused by their virtue to become angry at the appropriate things. Yet there are very many ways to go wrong with it, because (as Aquinas says, citing Aristotle) anger only imperfectly listens to reason like a servant that rushes to act before hearing the completed order. You have to get the reason right to act virtuously, measuring the righteous vengeance against the offense and other considerations, and anger is dangerous because it provides an impediment to reason as well as a spur to action.
When the author says that "passion" is "a somewhat antiquated term," by the way, he appears to be saying that Aristotelian psychology itself is antiquated. If so, he's actually rejecting Aquinas more or less outright even as he relies upon his arguments as a source of authority.
Good points.
To pick a nit, though, "self-righteous" is a pejorative term; self-righteous anger is different from righteous anger.
self-right·eous (sĕlf′rī′chəs)
adj.
1. Smugly or unduly sure of one's own righteousness.
2. Exhibiting smug or unwarranted confidence in one's own righteousness: self-righteous remarks.
https://www.thefreedictionary.com/self-righteous
Why he says self-righteous anger belongs to God alone isn't clear. Maybe he means only God is righteous in Himself? Or, maybe he's using the term incorrectly.
Some Anger IS Righteous ? Really? What about the Sermon on the Mount? - Greg
Seeds of Death and the Infinite Loftiness of the Eternal Goal by Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange
https://onepeterfive.com/seeds-death-infinite-eternal/
.......The Infinite Elevation of Our Supernatural End Demands a Special Mortification or Abnegation
We saw in the preceding chapter that in the Sermon on the Mount our Lord demands the mortification of the slightest inordinate interior movements of anger, sensuality, and pride, because we ought, He says, to be “perfect as also your heavenly Father is perfect,” (Mt. 5:48) since we have received a participation in His intimate life, and since we are called to see Him immediately as He sees Himself, and to love Him as He loves Himself...........
.....From the fact that we are called to a supernatural end of infinite elevation, since it is God Himself in His intimate life, it is not sufficient for us to live according to right reason, subordinating our passions to it. We must always act not only as rational beings, but as children of God, in whom reason is subordinate to faith, and every action is inspired by charity. This obliges us to detachment in regard to all that belongs only to the earth, or is purely natural, in regard to all that cannot be a means of drawing nearer to God and of leading souls to Him. In this sense we must combat the different forms of natural eagerness, which would absorb our activity to the detriment of the life of grace......
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