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Title: Reverence: Renewing a Forgotten Virtue by Paul Woodruff ISBN: 0-19-515795-8 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: December, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.27 (11 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: a book for today, but not only today
Comment: This book is valuable if only for framing the problem of how the strong ought to interact with the weak. As we in the USA approach war with a weaker nation, flush with confidence and righteousness, dismissive of counsel from far and near -- reverence is exactly the virtue most needed, and Woodruff's book makes this plain, even if not directly.
This book is not a veiled argument about something current. The reviewer who claimed this is a self-help book apparently only skimmed it, or perhaps has only skimmed self-help books. No contemporary self-help book would, as this one does, ground its claims in the likes of Thucydides, Homer, Euripides, Sophocles, and Tennyson; no self-help book would, as this one does, fail to mention the internet; no self-help book would, as this one does, dare to omit a section on "[topic] in the business world."
Woodruff's book is what it claims to be -- a thoughtful account of what reverence is and why it matters. Since the book's subject is a feeling or a capacity for those feelings, it is inherently difficult to render in precise terms. I believe this accounts for what has been called its repetiveness, but I do not regard this as a flaw. A book characterizing love or courage would need to be similarly repetitive. Woodruff approaches and reapproaches an elusive topic from several perspectives and many literary sources, never pretending to exhaustiveness or rigor.
Readers may share my quibbles as to whether the book successfully distinguishes reverence from respect, modesty and humility; or to put the matter exactly, whether one virtue, reverence, should be considered distinct from and preferable to those values. But by whatever name we might call it -- and surely reverence will do -- the book achieves its aim, to elucidate reverence and call our attention to its rightful place among the virtues.
Rating: 5
Summary: Keeping Reverence Alive
Comment: Reverence is not dead. Humanity, however, stands at a critical crossroads in the survival of reverence, its lasting relationship with the virtue and with itself. In Reverence: Renewing a Forgotten Virtue, Paul Woodruff draws on two disparate yet equally influential cultures to make that and another key assertion: reverence has permeated human history through culture, religion and all other intellectual thought. Despite its universality and historical impact, reverence now more closely resembles a ghost than a living being; it is among us, yet we remain oblivious of its presence.
Beginning with the importance and roles of reverence in ancient Greek and Chinese cultures to support his proposal, Woodruff proceeds to cite examples of both successes and failures of reverence in modern contexts ranging from the classroom to Little League Baseball to the Vietnam War, highlighting the remnants of this long-held virtue and showing what humanity can use as a departure point to reacquaint itself with reverence. He explains the differences between reverence and respect, suggests the importance of each in various contexts and asserts the ability and necessity of reverence to transcend both religious and cultural boundaries in an increasingly global society. He clarifies the symbiotic natures of reverence with both justice and ceremony in social and religious institutions and marks the pitfalls of inadvertently trading belief for harmony in the name of reverence in a chapter on relativism.
This intriguing little book is a treasure, true to its message, as Woodruff treats both his subject and his audience with the reverence he advocates in a literary Golden Rule. His prose is rich yet flows seamlessly and deftly from point to point. It is clear that he possesses a deep and thorough knowledge of classics and ancient cultures. Despite this abundant knowledge of his subject, he does not condescend; he allows his audience an accessible and essential view of the knowledge of the traditions he uses to support his thesis, treating them as peers with a genuine interest in learning.
Woodruff makes it clear in Reverence that this virtue, which stands on its own and plays an integral role in developing other virtues for oneself, is not merely an academic question for philosophers to play with in a vacuum. In this global society where nations, cultures, religions and ideologies - some coinciding, some conflicting - collide every day with far reaching consequences, reverence is a more necessary and practical virtue for both the survival of humankind and humanity. Reverence may no longer be a ghost; Woodruff fleshes it out.
Rating: 4
Summary: Interesting Idea but Overworked.
Comment: Paul Woodruff, a Professor of Humanities at the University of Texas, writes about what he maintains we have lost sight of, reverence. While he admits the word is difficult to define, Mr. Woodruff says it "begins in a deep understanding of human limitations; from this grows the capacity to be in awe of whatever we believe lies outside our control--God, truth, justice, nature, even death." If we have reverence, we respect people lower than ourselves; we are kind to children. Woodruff differentiates between religion and reverence. He says that some people the most fervent about their religion do not have reverence. There is reverence outside religion. Reverence moderates war in all times and cultures. Reverent people do not say they speak on the authority of God either. Mr. Woodruff describes how a group of young people without traditional religion can experiene reverence at a memorial service for a friend when they share both their sorrow and silence.
The author gives many other examples of reverence or the absence thereof, citing references in both ancient China and ancient Greece as well as calling up the Victorian poet Tennyson.
I bought this book after having seen Mr. Woodruff discussing reverence in an interview by Bill Moyers. I must say that while the book is both thought provoking and thoughtful, it is far too long. The author repeats himself over and over. I could have gotten the point from a chapter or two on the subject in a book of essays or in a long journal article.
Having said that, I was so taken by Mr. Woodruff's comments on The Iliad that I ordered the translation he cites to reread this work for the first time in many years.
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Title: Facing Evil: Confronting the Dreadful Power Behind Genocide, Terroism, and Cruelty by Paul Woodruff, Harry A. Wilmer, Tex.) Symposium on Understanding Evil (1987 Salado ISBN: 0812695178 Publisher: Open Court Publishing Company Pub. Date: 10 November, 2001 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning by Chris Hedges ISBN: 1586480499 Publisher: PublicAffairs Pub. Date: 03 September, 2002 List Price(USD): $23.00 |
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Title: Forgetting Ourselves on Purpose: Vocation and the Ethics of Ambition by Brian J. Mahan, Robert Coles ISBN: 0787956333 Publisher: Jossey-Bass Pub. Date: 04 January, 2002 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Beyond Belief : The Secret Gospel of Thomas by Elaine Pagels ISBN: 0375501568 Publisher: Random House Pub. Date: 06 May, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: When Religion Becomes Evil by Charles Kimball ISBN: 0060506539 Publisher: Harper SanFrancisco Pub. Date: 03 September, 2002 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
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