I meet monthly with a book discussion group called "Theology on Tap." We gather in a pub or restaurant and enjoy refreshments and conversation about a shared reading. Our books always have a theological focus, usually with a practical orientation to living more authentic and whole lives.
We are currently reading the 2015 best seller "The Road to Character" by commentator David Brooks. Brooks tends to frame current events broadly within historical, ethical and theological contexts. For most of his career he has been identified as a conservative, but these days he seems better described as a moderate.
Brooks opens "The Road to Character" with memories of August 1945, as Americans reacted to the victorious end of World War II. There was joy, surely, but there was also a sense of modesty and restraint. Bing Crosby summarized the mood. "Today, our deep-down feeling is one of humility."
War correspondent Ernie Pyle wrote, "I hope that in victory we are more grateful than proud."
While acknowledging some weaknesses and flaws in that more modest era, Brooks thinks we might learn from them.
Brooks sees today's culture encouraging us to see ourselves as the center of the universe: "You are special. Trust yourself. Be true to yourself ... Follow your passion. Don't accept limits. Chart your own course." Cultural narcissism is on the rise.
He challenges us to look at the qualities of good character and how to get there. Brooks sees the virtuous path to be enlightened first by humility. Wisdom is "knowing what you don't know and figuring out a way to handle your ignorance, uncertainty, and limitation."
His chapters tell stories of singular lives finding their order and meaning in some of the traditional virtues: Frances Perkins (duty), Dwight Eisenhower (self-conquest), Dorothy Day (struggle), George Marshall (self-mastery), A. Philip Randolph (dignity), Mary Ann Evans, aka George Eliot (love), Augustine (ordered love) and Samuel Johnson (self-examination).
Brooks suggests we need to cultivate these qualities today to restore balance to a culture too driven by narcissism and self-aggrandizement. We need to recognize we are all crooked timber -- flawed and to some extent broken. But we can build strong character out of crooked material. That's our challenge and call.
Brooks offers a Humility Code:
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• We don't live for happiness, we live for holiness. Life is a moral drama, not a hedonistic one.
• Acknowledge we are flawed, self-centered creatures, and then resolve to struggle against ourselves on behalf of holiness (wholeness).
• We are splendidly endowed. We have the capacity to struggle with ourselves, and that struggle is heroic.
• In the struggle, your greatest virtue is humility.
• Pride is the central vice. Pride blinds us.
• Once the necessities for survival are satisfied, our struggle against sin and for virtue is the central drama of life.
• You build character as you confront your own weakness, becoming "more disciplined, considerate, and loving through a thousand small acts of self-control, sharing, service, friendship, and refined enjoyment." The alternative path is to become a slave to your own passions.
• The short-term temptations are lust, fear, vanity and gluttony. Character endures for the long term -- courage, honesty, humility.
• You cannot achieve self-mastery on your own. We need traditions and community.
• We are all ultimately saved by grace. When you fall, open up space and grace floods in, from strangers, friends and from God. You are accepted. Accept the fact that you are accepted, and be grateful.
• Defeating weakness often means to quiet the self. Still the ego.
• Wisdom starts with modesty about what you think you know. Don't think you can understand the complex web of causes that drive events. We don't even know our own depths. History is a great teacher and holds practical wisdom.
• Organize your life around vocation. Serve work that is intrinsically compelling. What is life asking of you?
• Public life is a contest between partial truths and legitimate contesting interests. Leaders find a just balance between competing values and goals, and they move forward steadily on an even keel.
• Become mature by becoming better than you used to be, becoming dependable, grounded by what is right, not what is popular or admired.
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Brooks emphasizes that it is OK to be flawed. Persevere and reach out for help. Know that when we live lives that are morally grounded, we can experience deep joy.
There is something appealing and instructive about the modest deep joy of August 1945. We could use a dose of that old-fashioned wisdom these days.