Reverence: Renewing a Forgotten Virtue

by Paul Woodruff

Book Overview

Reverence is an ancient virtue that survives among us in half-forgotten patterns of civility and moments of inarticulate awe. Reverence gives meaning to much that we do, yet the word has almost passed... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195157958
• Release Date: December 2002
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 5.0" x 0.7" x 7.0"

Customer Reviews

A most remarkable work

Paul Woodruff may have written one of the more important books I have ever read. At this time of near war and religious terror, with our country, and the world, being rapidly torn apart by political and sectarian certainties, Woodruff's book is as welcome as a breath of clean, gas free air might have been on the night of the Bhopal catastrophe. If I could afford it, and if I thought they would read it, I would send a copy to every politician and religious leader in the world. In the past 20 of the almost 68 years of my life, I have read many works of moral philosophy and ethics. Reverence has been one of the very few truly awe inspiring books I've ever read. And the remarkable thing about Reverence is that it can speak to almost any one, of whatever religious or political persuasion, or to those with none. It is written in such a manner as to be accessible to readers of almost any level above, say, the seventh grade, and speaks with comparable interest to those whose lives may have been devoted to a study of moral philosophy. According to Woodruff, while reverence may certainly be involved in religion, and in fact, religion without true reverence is one of the most distructive forces in the world, it should be embraced even more closely by the politician and the great leaders of the world, as well as us ordinary mortals. If you don't read anything else in the year 2003, read Reverence. William F Harrison

Keeping Reverence Alive

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.

New/Old Wisdom About Human Limits

Christopher Lasch once raised what he called the "forbidden topic of limits" in our society. In his new book Reverence, Paul Woodruff explores in a fresh and compelling way the topic of implacable human limitations and what it means to acknowledge or fail to acknowledge them in the business of living. His work brings to light a much obscured dimension of human life and living, and ought to be of keen interest to philosophers, social theorists, social scientists, and seekers after wisdom generally.In Woodruff's view, "reverence" has as much to do with politics and power as religion and often transpires outside the sphere of religion altogether. Reverence "begins in a deep understanding of human limitations" and from it "grows the capacity to be in awe of whatever we believe lies outside our control"--God, the gods (beneficent or evil), truth, nature, justice--in his words, "conceived as an ideal, dimly grasped and much disputed"--death, or, if that is how one sees it, nothing at all. This capacity and its exercise is a virtue, indeed a cardinal virtue, Woodruff claims, in just the sense that courage or fairmindedness are virtues. He argues that reckoning with this dimension of human life is a universal, inescapable task. Of course, it takes myriad forms in different times and cultures. But he points out that people from very different religions commonly much admire one another's outlook and practices, which can't be based on the content of their creeds. It appears that we can detect and admire this quality anywhere. I would add (I am sure he would agree) that the same sense of admiration and commonality often occurs among religious and nonreligious individuals. Woodruff explores how the Greeks before Plato and Confucius and his immediate followers in China, such as Mencius, defend reverence as an indispensable bulwark of human society, the thing that alone keeps leaders from trying to act like gods (tyranny and hubris for the Greeks), and is necessary if ordinary people are to find a place of belonging in society, with its inevitable differences and hierarchies, one that avoids the extremes, we might say, of emotional isolation and domination. Woodruff points out that Western philosophers since Plato largely ignore reverence, perhaps because they have so often pursued utterly objective and timeless truth. But poets from Homer and the Greek tragedians to Tennyson and Philip Larkin , and others like Lasch, bring it to the fore again and again. Reverence, in Woodruff's words, is "the virtuous capacity for awe, respect, and shame" in the face of what "cannot be changed or controlled by human means" ( p. 7). In our time, we mainly hear praise of irreverence. But reverence is not only compatible with but often calls for the mocking of pompous solemnity and arrogant hypocrisy. Of course, more than irreverence is needed, lest we fall into mere negativity or cynicism. In the civic republican tradition, any viable alternative to excessive independence

Thoughtful book about a missing virtue

I bought this book because I was impressed by a review, and I am well pleased with my choice. I have limited philosophy background, but the writing is clear and contains down to earth examples for the non philosophical. I was especially pleased that he discussed the importance of reverence in both religious and secular settings, and in several different cultures: Greece, ancient China, and present day university life . The importance of reverence as a feeling that nourishes compassion, justice, and other humane virtues is a lesson that I as a physician can relate to. Similarly, the interconnection between ceremony (offical ceremonies of state, and mundane one in families etc.) and reverence remind me of the importance of medicine as an art, not just as a science. I suspect other readers will find similar inspiration in their daily lives and tasks

From the Publisher, Oxford University Press

"Tracing the roots of the idea to ancient Greece and China, and following it through into our own time, Woodruff shows persuasively that the qualities he associates with reverence are crucial to the health of families, communities, armies, and political systems, and also to the health of the natural world insofar as it is influenced by human actions."Although the great erudition underlying his argument is evident in the notes, Woodruff carries his learning lightly, using narrative scenarios and Socratic dialogues to illustrate his points, drawing on his own experience as a teacher or soldier, quoting poetry, writing clear prose."This illuminating book would have been even more useful had he discussed what happens when the terms of reverence clash - as in debates over capital punishment, abortion, euthanasia, pacifism, or experiments on animals. Still, to have rescued the ideas of virtue in general and reverence in particular from their ideological kidnappers, as this book does, is a worthy feat."Scott Russell Sanders, THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR