Alasdair MacIntyre (1929- ) has proposed a return to virtue ethics in the West, a return that focuses on linking ancient Greek ethics to contemporary religious ethics. Specifically, MacIntyre seeks to forge ties between Aristotelian ethical theory broadly with Judeo-Christian, and most closely with Roman Catholic, religious ethics for purposes of realizing humanity’s telos in an otherwise confused and confusing post-Enlightenment mode of living in today’s world. MacIntyre’s proposal closely parallels, in quite intriguing ways, a focus on and linkages between virtue and Islam in the writings of Fethullah Gülen (1941- ), who likewise can be interpreted to seek linkages between living a fully ethical and wholly faithful life in community with others who share those commitments. This essay attempts to chart several of these key parallel developments in understanding virtue ethics in religious and communal contexts.
Further, one theoretic and practical extrapolation from this study is the extension of MacIntyre’s and Gülen’s thought from the individual-cum-community setting to that of established institutional context. That is, in political and economic/business terms, one can extend understanding virtue into the realm of an institution’s existence and life which includes but is more than the virtue of the individuals making up the institution or the virtue of the community that the institution serves: for institutions, too, are actors amenable to virtue analysis and critique.

Daniel W. Skubik is Professor of Law, Ethics & Humanities, at California Baptist University (CBU), Riverside, CA. He holds advanced degrees in philosophy, theology, law and political science. Skubik is former Founding Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, former Founding Director of the Honors Program, and is currently a full-time member of the faculty, at CBU. His areas of teaching, publication and research include applied ethics & jurisprudence; social & political philosophy; and international political economy. Current research projects include investigations of usury and alternative banking transactions, and business ethics in a globalized economy. Recent papers include “Fethullah Gülen, Islamic Banking, and Global Finance”, and “Are Credit Card Interest Rates Blasphemous? Usury in Judeo-Christian-Islamic Perspective”.