In theology, epikeia involves observing the spirit of a law rather than the literal rule. Grant explains how in many cases, epikeia actually serves a greater good. Thomas Aquinas defends cases of epikeia in his Summa Theologica. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Epikeia”
We often talk in this program about the rules of grammar, the rules of language,
And sometimes we talk about how it’s okay to break them in certain circumstances.
Well, there’s a word I found that I think applies.
It’s from theology, and it’s a little old-fashioned.
It even goes back to Plato, and it’s epikia.
And it’s the notion that you might prefer to obey the spirit of a rule or law
Rather than obeying it to the letter.
Does that make sense?
And so in theology, you could see how an edict from the church
Or an edict from God might sound very specific,
And yet there’s always these border cases where you’re technically breaking the rule,
And yet you’re actually doing only good.
The only thing that’s happening is,
The only product of your effort is, is goodness.
And so I would just think about,
Sometimes we talk about language
And we have epikeia happening here all the time, right?
E-P-I-K-E-I-A, epikeia.
That’s a nice word.
That’s a good one, right?
Greek, obviously, you can hear it.
Share your new words or your old ones,
Even going back to Plato,
Or give us a call, 877-929-9673.
