ABSTRACT

This chapter explores the strengths and weaknesses of Thomas Aquinas’ Christian approach to the person and virtue as a framework to understand human resilience, in general, and self-care and burn-out of helping professionals, in particular. His approach to virtue has been credited as a sure foundation for research on character from a secular (generic) perspective, yet his understanding of virtue is also thoroughly Christian. His vision of human nature and divine grace underlies the further conviction that we can have true and noncontradictory, although limited, knowledge of natural and transcendent resilience. This conception of virtue, which draws upon scripture, Christian tradition, and psychosocial sciences – each in distinct ways – is not compelling without the distinction of acquired and infused virtues. Aquinas’ philosophical and theological framework serves in the critical appropriation of non-theological sources, including psychosocial studies on resilience. Insights on fortitude, practical wisdom, patience, charity-love, and hope, as a non-exclusive core of natural (acquired) and transcendent (infused) resilience-promoting virtues, are applied to deepen our understanding of (1) coping with difficulty and managing adversity, (2) sustaining integrity and preventing burn-out, and (3) facilitating stress-related growth and contributing to self-care.