"While Ethics as a Work of Charity contains many close readings and strives to settle any number of textual disputes, it is not at all a pedantic work. Its chief virtue lies in the thoughtful and imaginative use to which it puts these careful readings. Decosimo adopts a spirit that he finds in Aquinas himself, one that combines an insistence on attentiveness with an even greater insistence on charity. As a result, Decosimo puts his considerable philosophical skills to work in articulating a full and sophisticated account of habit, virtue, and human happiness drawn chiefly from Aquinas's mature writings."
—Jeffrey Hause, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

"Decosimo does painstaking exegetical work to show that the kind of virtue Thomas affirms of pagans is true virtue, a stable habit that generates good actions that perfect our natural capacities . . . Decosimo has helped us see a better way, recovering an aspect of Thomas's theological ethics with possibilities that have not always been acknowledged. [He] has written a landmark book of lasting importance."
—Jordan Hylden, The Living Church

"Decosimo's writing is precise and inviting, from the well-structured chapters down to the clear and manageable sentences. He explains Thomistic concepts well and with appropriate, contemporary examples. The book would be appropriate for classroom use at the masters' level and above...It will be an important resource to those interested in Aquinas as well as to Christians pursuing interreligious dialogue."
—Kate Ward, Political Theology

"The core of Decosimo's book is a thorough, textually grounded and convincing reply to those who deny that, on Aquinas's view, true virtue is impossible without grace. As such, it represents an important contribution to an ongoing debate. At the same time, in the process of making his case against 'Augustinian' readings of Aquinas, Decosimo sets out an illuminating account of Aquinas's conception of virtue as a kind of perfection, together with insightful remarks on the development of the virtues, the structure of moral motivation, and the presuppositions for attaining stability of character."
—Jean Porter, Studies in Christian Ethics

"Ethics as a Work of Charity is an impressive book on the whole and in its various moving parts. It will be of interest to those interested in virtue ethics, theology of religious outsiders, political Augustinians, and those interested in the relationship between theology and philosophy, faith and reason, natural and supernatural, and nature and grace."
—Sean Larsen, Modern Theology

"[Decosimo] presents a lucid and innovative argument about the disputed status of 'pagan virtue' in debates in Christian ethics. While most Christians today continue to believe that Christian faith permeates and transforms all aspects of a believer's life, most also affirm that people of any religious faith - or none - are capable of living virtuous lives... Ethics as a Work of Charity makes a substantial contribution to a perennial debate in Thomistic moral theology."

—William Mattison, Commonweal Magazine

"A penetrating study of Aquinas's treatment of pagan virtue, showing its roots in Aristotle and Augustine and its relevance for contemporary ethics, while reaffirming the fundamental Christian conviction that virtue requires the action of grace. This is a major contribution to Aquinas interpretation and theological efforts to navigate religious diversity with fidelity and generosity."
—Archbishop J. Augustine Di Noia, OP, Vatican City

"Ethics as a Work of Charity is a splendid book, far surpassing in its comprehensiveness, meticulous argument and creative fidelity in rational reconstruction anything else that has been written on the topic. It is utterly persuasive in its central claims concerning Aquinas’s affirmation that pagan virtue is not just true virtue, but in certain respects also perfect."
—Jennifer Herdt, “True Pagan Virtue and the Anomalies of Infused Virtue: A Response to Ethics as a Work of Charity"

"Decosimo’s book is the best recent study on the complex and controverted matter of Aquinas’s teaching on the acquired and the infused moral virtues. His conceptually astute and textually meticulous analysis and interpretation demonstrates that what are conventionally considered as the straightforwardly Aristotelian and Augustinian alternatives are ultimately unhelpful interpretive strategies because they fall, in their respective ways, short of the daring and depth of Aquinas’s synthesis"
—Reinhard Hütter, "Happiness and Religion: Why the Virtue of Religion is Indispensable for Attaining the Final End A Re-lecture of Thomas Aquinas with an Eye to His Contemporary Relevance," Nova et Vetera

"In the year of Brexit and Trump, David Decosimo’s Ethics as a Work of Charity: Aquinas on Pagan Virtue provides needed therapy. As a piece of historical scholarship, Decosimo’s central thesis is that Aquinas recognizes pagan or non-Christian virtue as real virtue. In addition to the historical thesis, Decosimo argues that Aquinas’s engagement with pagan virtue shows charity in practice. For Aquinas, the pagan is the unbeliever, the outsider, who has a radically different view of the world and the good life. Aquinas’s effort to recognize the good of the outsider without compromising what makes the outsider different provides a principled example of how we might proceed with our own outsiders. I’ll add that Decosimo’s careful and systematic reading of Aquinas offers a further example of the charitable engagement he commends, for Aquinas is an outsider to most of us... Whatever one thinks about Aquinas’s philosophical and theological arguments about God and the world, the vision of how to treat outsiders explained and exemplified by Decosimo is both lovely and sorely needed."
—Brandon Dahm, British Journal for the History of Philosophy

"There is much to be admired in this work. Decosimo writes clearly and knows how to mount a meticulous argument. He attempts to be fair to authors holding counter- positions. Readers will admire his willingness to undertake a bold agenda at a time when Thomas and especially Thomists are seen as representing either the bulwark of Roman Catholic hegemonic thinking or the progenitors of an insular form of Christian theological reflection to protect the church from external challenges. This book once and for all puts an end to the argument that Thomas was a hyper-Augustinian who believed that all pagans were so corrupted by wickedness that they were incapable of leading good lives. Decosimo is right: Thomas was Aristotelian because he was Augustinian, and vice versa. Recognizing the outsider’s virtue does not bespeak a lack of reliance on God but a form of trust in the goodness of God’s creation."
—Stephen Pope, Journal of Religion

"The aim of this illuminating book is not only to argue that St Thomas Aquinas thought that pagans could possess virtue, but that he held this view due to his Christian commitments and not in spite of them... The detail of his analysis, the acuity of his insights and the careful distinctions he draws are where the merits of this work reside. This book is also a timely contribution to the cur- rent debate, given the recent increase of interest in the infused virtues among Thomists."
—John D. O'Connor, New Blackfriars