Academic Work

Marty’s doctoral work argues that prudence is not merely a “Catholic virtue,” but a biblical virtue and a tool God has given Christians for engaging culture faithfully. One of the problems he sees in Protestant approaches to ethics is a tendency toward overly simple, black-and-white applications of morality that fail to account for the importance of context.

Christians may know that God’s Word applies to all of life while still struggling to determine how it should be applied faithfully in complex circumstances. Marty’s research explores prudence as a virtue that helps bridge that gap. Thomas Aquinas became an important conversation partner because few Christian thinkers have engaged the subject of prudence as extensively — though Marty does not agree with Aquinas on every theological question.

The dissertation was supervised by Andrew T. Walker. Marty is currently pursuing publication of the work.