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Virtue ethics provides a helpful framework for reconciling disparate traditions such as social work and Christianity. This article begins with a summary of traditional ethical theories that are organized around agents, actions, and consequences. Virtue ethics, an agent-centered theory, is then explained more thoroughly using Alasdair Maclntyreè concepts of practice, tradition, narrative, and the good life. The role of virtue ethics in the Christian tradition is explored in the third section. It concludes by considering how a virtue perspective provides resources for addressing issues relevant to religious faith and social work.
The primary mission of the social work profession is to enhance human wellbeing and help meet the basic human needs of all people, with particular attention to the needs and empowerment of people who are vulnerable, oppressed, and living in poverty. A historic and defining feature of social work is the profession's focus on individual wellbeing in a social context and the wellbeing of society. Fundamental to social work is attention to the environmental forces that create, contribute to, and address problems in living.
Social workers promote social justice and social change with and on behalf of clients.... Social workers are sensitive to cultural and ethnic diversity and strive to end discrimination, oppression, poverty, and other forms of social injustice. These activities may be in the form of direct practice, community organizing, supervision, consultation administration, advocacy, social and political action, policy development and implementation, education, and research and evaluation. Social workers seek to enhance the capacity of people to address their own needs. Social workers also seek to promote the responsiveness of organizations, communities, and other social institutions to individuals' needs and social problems.
The mission of the social work profession is rooted in a set of core values. These core values, embraced by social workers throughout the professions history, are the foundation of social work's unique purpose and perspective: service, social justice, dignity and worth of the person, importance of human relationships, integrity, and competence.
Keywords: virtue, social work, ethics, Christian, MacIntyre
MANY READERS WILL RECOGNIZE THIS AS THE PREAMBLE TO THE CODE of Ethics of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW, 2008). Along with the Code's corresponding principles and ethical standards, it provides a foundation for social work education...