HUGHES, Gerard J.

PERSONAL:

Born in Glasgow, Scotland. Education: Licentiate in Philosophy, 1957; graduated from London Institute of Education; Licentiate in Theology 1967; Oxford University, M.A. with double first-class honours; University of Michigan, Ph.D., 1970. Religion: Roman Catholic.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Campion Hall, Oxford University, Oxford OXI 1QS, England. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Ordained Roman Catholic priest, 1967. Heythorp College, University of London, London, England, lecturer, 1970—, vice-principal, 1984—; British Province, Vice-Provincial, 1982-88; Oxford University, Oxford, England, master of Campion Hall, 1998—.

WRITINGS:

Authority in Morals: An Essay in Christian Ethics, Heythrop College (London, England), 1978, Georgetown University Press (Washington, DC), 1978.

Moral Decisions, Darton, Longman & Todd (London, England), 1980.

(Editor) The Philosophical Assessment of Theology: Essays in Honour of Frederick C. Copleston, Georgetown University Press (Washington, DC), 1987.

The Nature of God, Routledge (New York, NY), 1995.

Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to Aristotle on Ethics, Routledge (New York, NY), 2001.

SIDELIGHTS:

Gerard J. Hughes, a Roman Catholic priest and member of the faculty of the University of London, is a specialist in ethics. Among his best-known writings are The Nature of God and Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to Aristotle on Ethics. In the former, he discusses such topics as existence, simplicity, goodness, omnipotence, and omniscience. As Kelly James Clark observed in the Philosophical Quarterly, The Nature of God "is generally clear, occasionally surprisingly unpredictable … and often disputable. But the latter is necessarily true of any book about God."

In Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to Aristotle on Ethics, Hughes focuses on Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics. According to Utilitas critic Lawrence J. Hatab, "Aristotle on Ethics is a stellar example of what texts of this sort should be. Anyone coming to Aristotle for the first time, or wanting to refresh their experience, would be very well served by Hughes's study." Hatab elaborated, "The book is extremely well written: clear, focused, nuanced, and cogently reasoned. It also goes beyond mere exegesis to engage Aristotle's thought philosophically and critically throughout the treatment."

At his personal Web site, Hughes stated, "As a Jesuit, over and above teaching people to think and reflect to some purpose, I wanted to convey something of the relationship between being a Catholic and being intellectually honest."

Hughes told CA: "I suppose I think of myself primarily as a teacher rather than as a researcher, and in what I have written I have tried to help my students rather than to revolutionise the course of Anglo-American philosophy. At least in my own view the introduction to Aristotle's Ethics comes closest to this ideal. I just hope the students are of the same opinion!"

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

America, February 23, 1980, James Gaffney, review of Authority in Morals: An Essay in Christian Ethics, p. 156.

Choice, January, 1988, R. H. Nash, review of The Philosophical Assessment of Theology: Essays in Honour of Frederick C. Copleston, p. 786.

Journal of Religion, April, 1988, Thomas A. Byrnes, review of Authority in Morals, pp. 321-322.

Library Journal, September 15, 2001, Leon H. Brody, review of Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to Aristotle on Ethics, p. 84.

Philosophical Quarterly, January, 1998, Kelly James Clark, review of The Nature of God, pp. 113-115.

Religious Studies, September, 1996, David A. Pailin, review of The Nature of God, pp. 413-415.

Religious Studies Review, July, 1988, Robert Holyer, review of The Philosophical Assessment of Theology, p. 238.

Times Educational Supplement, September 5, 1980, Hugh Montefiore, review of Moral Decisions, p. 24.

Times Literary Supplement, January 31, 2003, Roger Crisp, review of Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to Aristotle on Ethics.

Utilitas, March, 2003, Lawrence J. Hatab, review of Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to Aristotle on Ethics, pp. 117-120.

ONLINE

Gerard J. Hughes Web site,http://www.jesuit.org.uk/ (June, 2004).

Heythrop College Web site,www.heythorp.ac.uk/ (June 2004), "Gerard J. Hughes," a profile.