The Character of Virtue
Letters to a Godson
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Narrated by:
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Scott R. Pollak
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By:
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Stanley Hauerwas
About this listen
Timeless wisdom from a renowned theologian on living well
From the fairy godmother’s pumpkin coach to Herr Drosselmeyer’s nutcracker, godparents have long been associated with good gifts. But in The Character of Virtue theologian and ethicist Stanley Hauerwas offers his real-life godson something far more precious than toys or trinkets - the gift of hard-won wisdom on life and the process of maturing.
In each of 16 letters - sent on the occasion of Laurence Wells’s baptism and every year thereafter - Hauerwas contemplates a specific virtue and its meaning for a child growing year by year into the Christian faith. Writing on kindness, courage, humility, joy, and more, Hauerwas distills centuries of religious thinking and decades of self-reflection into heartfelt personal epistles that are both timely and timeless.
An introduction by Samuel Wells, Laurence’s father and Hauerwas’s friend, tells the story behind these letters and offers sage insight into what a godparent is and can be.
©2018 Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. (P)2018 Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Spiritual platform for left-wing ideology
- By John Glemby on 06-29-19
By: Joan Chittister, and others
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Count It All Joy
- Discover a Happiness That Circumstances Cannot Change
- By: David Jeremiah
- Narrated by: Wayne Shepherd
- Length: 5 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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The Apostle Paul wrote his most personal letter while abandoned in a Roman prison, where he suffered abuse. He wrote to believers who lived in the shadow of the Roman tyrant Nero. And yet this letter, Philippians, is the most joy-filled epistle in the Bible. Weaving together modern stories and historical details, Dr. David Jeremiah explores Philippians verse by verse, showing us what it means to be joyful in spite of circumstances.
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This is all about contentment. We all can take this to heart
- By Robert D. on 12-29-22
By: David Jeremiah
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Humility
- True Greatness
- By: C. J. Mahaney
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 3 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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A battle rages within every one of us every day. It's the clash between our sense of stubborn self-sufficiency and God's call to recognize that we're really nothing without Him. It's pride versus humility. And it's a fight we can't win without looking repeatedly to Christ and the cross. C. J. Mahaney raises a battle cry to daily, diligently, and deliberately weaken our greatest enemy (pride) and cultivate our greatest friend (humility).
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Excellent book lots of guidance!
- By Nita Redden on 02-22-18
By: C. J. Mahaney
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Let Go
- Seven Stumbling Blocks to Christian Discipleship
- By: Casey Cole OFM
- Narrated by: Casey Cole OFM
- Length: 4 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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"What must I do to gain eternal life?” The rich man who asked this of Jesus was told to sell all he had and give to the poor. But, more importantly, he was told, “Come, follow me!” Franciscan Casey Cole challenges us to let go of something more difficult than material wealth: expectations, anxiety, comfort, wounds, enemies, power - and our very selves. Speaking from both personal and pastoral experience, he outlines the stumbling blocks that turn us away from following Jesus as true disciples. The response to “What must I do?” is simple but not easy: Let go. Now.
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Truly a good listen
- By Anonymous User on 12-23-22
By: Casey Cole OFM
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Help My Unbelief
- Why Doubt Is Not the Enemy of Faith
- By: Barnabas Piper
- Narrated by: Barnabas Piper
- Length: 4 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Barnabas Piper unpacks what faith really means. He shows how embracing doubts and questions can help us to get to know God and encourages us to risk trusting God in our everyday lives, even when we don’t understand everything about him. This book will encourage Christians seeking to ask questions in a godly way and will give them confidence to trust God, even when some questions remain.
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A critical foundational read for any believer's at any time in their walk
- By Gamer35 on 05-27-24
By: Barnabas Piper
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Come and See
- Everything You Ever Wanted in the One Place You Would Never Look
- By: Todd Wagner, John Driver
- Narrated by: Todd Wagner
- Length: 7 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Pastor Todd Wagner invites listeners to experience the adventure, beauty, and fullness of life through the church as God intended. Obligated weekly services of mostly bored adults are not God's vision for His people. Todd illuminates a path for listeners to personally pursue a deeper relationship with God and then purposefully invest in God's design for His church. This book paints the picture of the Father's intention to bring His people into an adventurous life full of authentic relationships, powerful transformation, significance, and meaning.
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God is good!
- By Boyd Pelley on 11-22-17
By: Todd Wagner, and others
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Adam's Return
- The Five Promises of Male Spirituality
- By: Richard Rohr
- Narrated by: Richard Rohr
- Length: 7 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Boys become men in much the same way across cultures, by integrating, through experience, each of five messages: Life is hard; You are not that important; Your life is not about you; You are not in control; You are going to die. Our culture has done everything in its power, it seems, to move away from this ancient wisdom. Men are lured away to dominate through money, sex, power, consumerism—and never really become men.
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Good for the soul
- By Mike Mo on 08-26-17
By: Richard Rohr
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Strangers in a Strange Land
- Living the Catholic Faith in a Post-Christian World
- By: Charles J. Chaput
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 9 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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From Charles J. Chaput, author of Living the Catholic Faith and Render unto Caesar, comes Strangers in a Strange Land, a fresh, urgent, and ultimately hopeful treatise on the state of Catholicism and Christianity in the United States. America today is different in kind, not just in degree, from the past. And this new reality is unlikely to be reversed.
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A Must Read
- By CFletcher on 07-04-17
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The Unshakable Truth
- How You Can Experience the 12 Essentials of a Relevant Faith
- By: Josh McDowell, Sean McDowell
- Narrated by: Jon Gauger
- Length: 16 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Know why you believe. Pass on what you've experienced. Many Christians are unsure about what they believe and why. They may wonder if their faith is meaningful and credible. Because of this, they struggle with passing on a relevant Christianity to their families and friends. That’s why Josh McDowell and his son, Sean, have created this comprehensive yet easy-to-understand handbook.
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Use what they give you.
- By Jon on 08-10-11
By: Josh McDowell, and others
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Wrestling with God
- Finding Hope and Meaning in Our Daily Struggles to Be Human
- By: Ronald Rolheiser
- Narrated by: Walter Dixon
- Length: 4 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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In Wrestling with God, Ronald Rolheiser offers a steady and inspiring voice to help us avow and understand our faith in a world where nothing seems solid or permanent. Drawing from his own life experience, as well as a storehouse of literary, psychological, and theological insights, the beloved author of Sacred Fire examines the fears and doubts that challenge us. It is in these struggles to find meaning, that Rolheiser lays out a path for faith in a world struggling to find faith, but perhaps more important, he helps us find our own rhythm within which to walk that path.
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Still Wrestling
- By Joseph B Oberting on 10-13-20
By: Ronald Rolheiser
What listeners say about The Character of Virtue
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- Tim
- 02-08-20
Virtuous performance of a good work
This Godfatherly advice reminds me of my Papa and some lessons he shared with me as I was growing up. A great listen for people of faith and even those who are not but find themselves in a position of being a Godparent, and what that should entail.
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- Adam Shields
- 07-28-18
16 Letters to his Godson about virtues
Maybe I am just getting old. But as I spend more time studying spiritual formation, both for my own benefit and to assist others in their own spiritual development, the more that I think the church as a whole has lost the thread of the development of character and virtue as an aspect of Christianity.
I know there are some good reasons for this loss of interest in virtue. Virtue and behavior management has been used to be socially and personally controlling. It has focused on cultural and encouraged a belief in white supremacy. It has been misused to prop up powerful people that lacked character for utilitarian reasons. But with the loss of authority around virtue and the loss of focus on virtue, individuals and communities have lost out on part of what is important about spiritual formation as both individuals and communities.
We are always christians within a culture. Our culture today is highly individualistic and while we as a Church should push back against that in many ways, we cannot pretend that the individualism of culture does not impact the church. Part of what this means is that we cannot assume that the older generation will automatically work toward the training of younger Christians. The older concept of godparent has been lost in part because of the mobility of our society.
In the fairly lengthy introduction to The Character of Virtue, Samuel Wells, the father of the godson being addressed by Hauerwas, gives a background not just on the letters to come, but the concept of godparent and how Hauerwas in particular came to be the godparent of a child in a different country. Because of the distance, Wells asked Hauerwas to write a letter a year on the anniversary of his godson’s baptism, about a different virtue.
Hauerwas knows that the early letters in The Character of Virtue are not going to be read by his godson for a while. But there is intention in the later ones to pay attention to the age and personality and position of the actual child. Laurence Wells was born in the UK. But his parents came to Duke where Hauerwas taught and for several years they were physically close and a more traditional godparent relationship developed. But before long, Lawrence was back in the UK again and the letters noted that change in relationship.
I do not know when these letters became conceptually became Character of Virtue. The last one directly addresses the fact that others are going to read them. So maybe it was not until just before that last letter was written that the plan was decided. Regardless of when the plan to publish was developed, these are formal letters that are intended to be read and re-read over time. They have references to a particular time and the particular child, but like many aspects of ‘wisdom literature’ the particular gives rise to ideas that are more wide spread.
I could not help but think about Paul’s letters in the New Testament as I was reading them. Hauerwas is addressing a particular child, as Paul was addressing a particular group of people, but wisdom and instruction addressed to particular people is often helpful to a much larger group because as much as we are separated by time and culture and background, many aspects of what it means to be human are common.
The more I read about virtue and character and spiritual wisdom, the more do not want to read ‘self help’. It isn’t that all self help books are bad. Many of them are very helpful. But one of the aspects that I have appreciated about reading wisdom from elders is that it is not simply principles to be learned and followed, but particular people that can be learned from and emulated, Not because they are perfect, but because they have experience and wisdom gained from long life of striving after virtue. Certainly not all elders are wise and virtuous people. But I do think there is something important to learning from those that are elders that have evidence of the virtues.
I have not read much Hauerwas, his excellent memoir and Resident Aliens over 25 years ago and some articles. I want to read more. There is probably subtext to some of these discussions in Character of Virtue that I am missing because I am unfamiliar with his work in ethics and theology. But the discussion of virtues targeted toward a child, or at least toward a young adult that would re-read these letters when they fully understood them, seems to be exactly what this 45 year old needed.
I should have read them more slowly. Because virtue development needs more than a quick read. I could handle two or three short chapters at a time before I had to stop and process. But I probably would have benefited from reading them no more than one at a time. It is content like this that the concept of slow reading is best practiced. I just am not very good at slow reading, but I am beginning to develop an eye and ear for the content that needs to be read slowly. Or at the very least, read over again several times.
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5 people found this helpful