Our contemporary culture is concerned about, as Brooks puts it, "resume virtues" and really ignores what he calls "eulogy virtues". Resume virtues being college degree, financial achievement, etc. But no one will talk about your masters degree at your funeral. At a eulogy, people talk of honesty, courage, wisdom, etc. He proposes that we have neglected moral character and have devoted ourselves to outward, fleeting success.
He is right and did a great job of not only identifying the problem but also showing how that problem came to pass. This, to me was outstanding portion of the book. Brooks identifies that man is fallen and broken by sin (yes, he says it is sin and makes the case that our country is far worse off for having "lost" this word) and that if we go within to find our standard of morality and goodness, we make gods of ourselves. He quoted G. K. Chesterton, who once observed that the reality of sin can be seen on a lovely Sunday afternoon when bored and restless children start torturing the cat. Brooks says:
"If you believe that the ultimate oracle is the True Self inside, then of course you become emotivist—you make moral judgments on the basis of the feelings that burble up. Of course you become a relativist. One True Self has no basis to judge or argue with another True Self. Of course you become an individualist, since the ultimate arbiter is the authentic self within and not any community standard or external horizon of significance without. Of course you lose contact with the moral vocabulary that is needed to think about these questions. Of course the inner life becomes more level—instead of inspiring peaks and despairing abysses, ethical decision making is just gentle rolling foothills, nothing to get too hepped up about."We focus so much on ourselves, anything that causes pain or uncomfortablness in our lives must be bad. Where, it is in the struggle where we are refined. We have become uncomfortable to face the reality of our own souls. He said "we are to morality what the Victorians were to sex." Which is a great line. Our prudishness in 2015 is directed towards virtue and morality.
But, (this is a book review, so there has to be a but) I think that his rules for character and his humility code do not really miss the boat, but more aptly in the book we get on the wrong boat. Brooks illustrates character by walking us through short biographies of men and women from different walks of life. He uses religious, non-religious alike to show that there are different ways to character. While true, there are different ways to reform the outside of the cup, there is only one way to clean the inside and that is the blood of Christ. This is why I believe the chapter on Augustine to be one of the best of the book. He pulls no punches here, talking of grace and redemption. Sin and humility. Perhaps by design? I don't know.
There are parts of the book that make me want to buy copies and give them to graduating seniors...and then there are parts where I don't know if I would even recommend it. It is a strange book. Partly because he talks of moral issues that are not tethered to anything. I suppose that is it - virtue and character building must be tethered to something greater, and just saying "something" isn't enough to motivate and move people to action. I hope some lost soul does not buy the book and get pulled into the legalistic, stoicism that is talked about, but is broken by their inability to do what is necessary and finds the One who lived a perfect life for us and gives us the grace to follow Him. I was thankful that as I realized I will never be as great as the people in the book, that in Christ, I have my identity and my life and my soul are tethered to Him. I have been given His righteousness and stand complete in Him.
No comments:
Post a Comment