Reverence: Renewing a Forgotten Virtue by Paul Woodruff

Reverence: Renewing a Forgotten Virtue Reviews

• 
  Eli

  I really wanted to love this book because it addresses a topic that really need more attention. But, the book is 8x longer than it should be. Get a good editor man. He repeats ideas and circles around things without ever making clear points most of the time. It’s frustrating and at times contradictory. My other issue with it is the tendency of the author to resolve intellectual conflict by rushing to the resolution and stating there is no inherent conflict of you understand it right. It’s like saying a husband and wife would never really fight if they understood marriage in the perfect way. It’s absurd and you have to go through the mess of working out contradictions and compromises. Other than that though, good book.
• 
  Victoria Weinstein

  A very preachable little gem!
• 
  Stephen

  Woodruff does a good job in the early chapters explaining the concept of reverence and breaking down his definition of the virtue. However, his explanation of reverence lacks any connection with religion. He does a decent job of trying to persuade the reader that one must pursue virtue for virtue's sake, but his arguments still lack the transcendent qualities that can be found in religious accounts, which he specifically tries to avoid. Thus, the assumptions he makes about certain topics do not seem to be grounded in metaphysical realities professed by Christians (or even other sects), making it miss the mark for them in some areas.
  
  What could have been a marvelous philosophical work if he had not pandered to a more secular audience is instead merely a decent work, most notable for its definition of reverence.
• 
  Patricia Vaccarino

  It is important to have a trigger to remind us of reverence. Paul Woodruff’s book is just that trigger—a reminder to base our ethics on virtues rather than rules. He invites us to examine the qualities of being morally good that are dependent on virtues such as honesty, compassion, courage and prudence... Where Mr. Woodruff gets off the track is when he begins mixing his metaphors among the Greek classics and Chinese philosophers. Both Plato and Confucius have similar ideals for rulers and the common folk—competition and the drive to win has no place among human beings whose primary virtue is virtue itself. His expertise in philosophy is diluted when he applies ancient wisdom to commonplace situations. His anecdotes about students he has known (Chris, Sam and Lila) reek of pettiness, and certainly do not aspire to the reverence he is helping us to understand and master. It might be because his definition of reverence is flawed. He says: reverence comprises awe, respect and shame. But there is no shame in reverence. There is, however, humility in reverence. Being humbled is an emotion of great purity and not the same as feeling shame. Still, I am grateful to Mr. Woodruff for bringing reverence to my attention, so I can examine what it means in my life and every life I touch.
• 
  Jon

  A life-changing book. One cannot read it without improving in mind and morals.
  
  Months after reading this book I cannot shake its message from my head. And I don't want to. It's looking to be the best book I read in 2009.
  
  Woodruff talks about a trait that can tie all believers and non-believers together, a trait that the contemporary West is losing quickly, one we cannot afford to lose. It is reverence that draws us to Cathedrals though we might not be Catholic, Stonehenge though we might not be Pagans. It is reverence that leads us to have awe for the Other even when our faith disagrees with theirs. It is reverence that resonates with us as we watch Shakespeare's characters wrestle with Jove, though we may believe in Christ. It is the most important trait for any good writer of fiction to comprehend, for it is a nod towards reverence and not towards dogma that makes great literature.
• 
  Sarah

  Wow! What a book. The concepts of virtue, of community, and of reverence itself have changed the way I look at the regular ceremonies I participate in with Church, school, family, and country. I value them now more than ever. I started marking the passages I liked in my copy, and found I'd marked nearly half the book.
  Woodruff's style does get a bit repetitive, so reading it all in one or two days (as I did) may not be ideal; you'd be better off picking it up in small segments, and being reminded of things you'd already learned.
• 
  Mark Lacy

  Interesting, made me think. Would've helped if I'd had more of a classical education so I could understand all the references to Greek literature. Was pleased to read his opinion of reverence as a virtue, a virtue that I think is sadly lacking in so many people these days. Disappointed that the final chapter didn't tie everything together or summarize his thesis. The book simply ended.
• 
  Artemisia Hunt

  In Reverence: Renewing a Forgotten Virtue, classics translator and expert Paul Woodruff makes a case for reverence as a much needed virtue for our times. And a reverence that should permeate all facets of society: politics, religion, education and family life. Often drawing heavily from the classics, he presents examples of reverent leaders, teachers, philosophers and parents and yet also points out the places where reverence is lacking or misunderstood. He is particularly critical of political and spiritual leaders who lack true reverence in their treatment of those they serve. Even though this book was written a bit before current world events, so many passages seem like warnings for us today. Well worth reading.
• 
  Alan Marr

  The notion behind this book is noble and at times wonderfully expressed. I was reading it at the time of the Christchurch shootings and was able to observe what Woodruff was getting at as i watched Jacinta Adern leading the people of New Zealand (and all of us) through the trauma.
  I found the book a little repetitive but still worth reading. I will endeavour to be more reverent in my attitude to people and events around me
• 
  Jay Kalina

  This book looks at the virtue of reverence which comes from awe, shame, and, respect. It is an interesting review of Greek and Chinese examples. Paul comes across with an irreverent air much of the time which turned me off to buying that this deserves absolute following. Great overall message, but tries to sell it too hard.
• 
  Morgan

  I read this because my university program asked me to over the summer. It was definitely interesting and made me think differently about our virtues, but I don't think I would choose to read this book again.
• 
  Willa Scanlon

  Book read for summer reading—terrible terrible book, really the worst. Every time I tried to read it I fell asleep. A great start to college.
• 
  Lizelle Van

  ...
• 
  Maughn Gregory

  A book of wisdom makes me want to be a better person and some way shows me how. This is a very wise book in both senses. By drawing on sources mostly from ancient Greece and China, and illustrating with examples from the contemporary western world (sports, politics, family, religion, education), Woodruff makes a compelling case that reverence as he defines it is a cardinal, i.e. trans-cultural virtue. Also, and not incidentally, I take Woodruff to be an exemplar of philosophical writing: he is equally erudite and accessible. I will share his chapter on teaching with my philosophy of education students, and his chapter on leadership with my administrators. Here are a few of my favorite passages:
  
  "Reverence is the capacity for a range of feelings and emotions that are linked; it is a sense that there is something larger than a human being, accompanied by capacities for awe, respect, and shame; it is often expressed in, and reinforced by, ceremony." (63)
  
  "Reverence calls for respect only when respect is really the right attitude. To pay respect to a tyrant would not be reverent; it would be weak and cowardly. The most reverent response to a tyrant is to mock him." (5)
  
  "If you wish to be reverent, never claim the awful majesty of God in support of your political views. You cannot speak on such matters with the authority of God. It is an especially vicious and harmful falsehood to say that you do--vicious because it is irreverent, harmful because it is like pouring fuel on smoldering disagreements.... Your followers will never listen to the other side, never enter into discussion, never consider a compromise. In fact, by claiming that God votes with you, you have effectively opted out of political process altogether."(18-19)
  
  "Home above all is the place where small rituals bring a family together into a family, where the respect they share is so common and familiar that they hardly recognize it as flowing from reverence." (35)
  
  "A virtue is a capacity, cultivated by experience and training, to have emotions that make you feel like doing good things.... Virtue talk has been revived in recent years, but it runs against the grain of modern ethics, which is mostly about doing what is right whether you feel like it or not. By contrast, virtue is about cultivating feelings that will lead you in the right way whether you know the rule in a given case or not." (61-2)
  
  "Without reverence, we may feel shame as the pain of being exposed to other people for having violated community standards--and this is not a virtuous response, because it may have nothing to do with right and wrong. But when reverence is in play, we feel shame when exposed in our own minds to shortcomings vis-à-vis the ideals toward which we stand in awe, and this reaction does belong to virtue …." (63)
  
  "What religious people today admire in other religions cannot be faith (since they reject most of the content of other faiths), but reverence." (11)
  
  "Reverence is not faith, because the faithful may hold their faith with arrogance and self-satisfaction, and because the reverent may not know what to believe." (46-7)
  
  "Socrates hides his meaning in inaccessible places. If he knows anything, he rarely admits it. He twists and turns away from the role of a teacher .... Irony is silence twisted into words that provoke and do not satisfy. Like pure silence, irony shows awe at subject matter that cannot easily be tamed. Irony treats students with more respect than they are likely to recognize. It is Socrates’ peculiar way of being reverent toward the goals of philosophy, toward wisdom ...." (188-9)
  
  "Every honest scholar knows that he too will die, that future generations will know more than he, and that someone will sooner or later refute him on some point or other. Knowing this--really knowing it in a way that enables you to feel respect for the faltering efforts of beginners in the field--is reverence." (195)
• 
  Jeff Garrison

  This essay, which is based on reflections of Woodruff's book, appeared in my blog:
  
  
  My life is lived out in tension.
  
  I want the world to be a better place. I also desire for people to treat one another with respect. Often, these two desires come into conflict.
  
  How can we encourage people to be better without being perceived as attacking them? Is there a way to accept people without judgment? I hope so, but sometimes find it difficult. I try not to be judgmental. But I find I am judgmental, especially when I find judgments by others that I perceive to be made unfairly or for unjust reasons. Then I become judgmental toward those who are judgmental. Instead of building relationships,, they become fractured. Is there a way to stop the vicious circle of accelerating tension?
  
  I also want to encourage people to live up to their potential. It is from this desire I often resort to parody and satire to challenge those whose actions seem self-righteous or who seem to take for granted their positions of power. The satirist critiques are based upon a strong moral ethic and the sharpness of his or her pen lies in the hypocrisy being practiced by those who are in control. “If mild reproof and counsel could succeed, the satirist would have nothing to do,†according to Ernest Tuveson in an article in “The Satirist’s Art. But when I critique, I run the risk of treating others with less respect that I would like. [for more on satire, see “Edward and Lillian Bloom, Satire’s Persuasive Voice, (Ithaca: Cornell, 1979). A warning however, the Bloom’s never met a compound or complex sentence they didn’t like—me being judgmental again.]
  
  One of the most influential books I’ve read in the past 2 years is Paul Woodruff, Reverence: Renewing a Forgotten Virtue (Oxford, 2001). Woodruff draws from early Greek and Chinese philosophy to make the case that reverence is a classic virtue which helps us to do right. “Reverence arises out of an 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…†“Simply put, reverence is the virtue that keeps human beings from trying to act like gods…†“tyranny is the height of irreverence.†“reverence separates leaders from tyrants…†“the reverent leader need not pretend to be godlike; the ideals are godlike enough.â€
  
  Woodruff does not deny the importance of humor and mockery in reverence. “Mockery serves reverence in two ways: by reminding stuffed shirts about their imperfections, and by awakening a sense of shame in people who have allowed theirs to lie dormant.†This is good news for me—I can still use humor.
  
  Since reverence makes few demands on belief (it can be practiced across religious lines), then a truly good desire would be that all people of all faiths practice reverence. I think there are deep wells within the Christian tradition from which we can draw. Jesus’ command not to judge, not to hate, and to pray for our enemies (anyone said a prayer for Bin Laden lately? And I don’t think Jesus saying to pray for our enemies’ means for us to pray that he meets his maker sooner.) Instead, we love others and pray even for our persecutors, for when we act in such a way, we will have a hard time demonizing them. We should pray that our enemies have reverence! I like that.
  
  Okay, this is heavy stuff—reminds me of the Ethics classes I took as an undergrad in the philosophy department. Let me end it with one quote from another of my favorite reverent/irreverent philosophers, Edward Abbey (who died in 1989, but lives on in Ed Abbey’s blog): “I hate intellectual discussion. When I hear the words phenomenology or structuralism, I reach for my buck knife.†-from, A Voice Crying in the Wilderness
• 
  Michael Lewyn

  This book defines reverence as "a sense that there is something larger than a human being, accompanied by capacities for awe,, respect, and shame... [often] reinforced by ceremony". Later in the book, Woodruff more succintly defines reverence as the ability "to feel respect in the right way towards the right people" as well as "awe towards an object that transcends particular human interests." The author believes that reverence is a virtue which, like other virtues, can help you feel like doing what is right (as opposed to merely controlling an impulse not to).
  
  For example, voting, even if (or especially if) one vote doesn't matter, is useful as an expression of reverence for the democratic process. Similarly, attending a committee meeting (even if you know what will happen in advance) is useful as an expression of reverence for the idea of faculty deliberation. Reverence is not the same as religious belief: for example, one who announces God's position on X or Y is anything but reverent, because reverence requires a sense of the difference between human and divine. (I do wish, however, that Woodruff had compared reverence and humility, because in this example the two seem to me much alike).
  
  Reverence is especially useful in hierarchical systems (not just ancient monarchies, but the many hierarchies that dot our lives, like companies and classrooms): leaders with reverence know that they don't know everything, and are more willing to listen to and learn from their inferiors. Even the most foolish inferiors have value, because a true sage has tested a theory against even foolish objections.
  
  On the other hand, inferiors have to respect superiors even before the latter have proved their worth - partially to show broader respect for whatever hierarchical "team" both superior and inferior are involved in (for example, a class in college), partially because the "team" can't function if the inferiors won't cooperate until the superior has shown his/her worth.
• 
  FreshGrads .Sg

  Noting the nonchalant destruction for our environment and a lack of respect for rules and authorities, philosopher Paul Woodruff questions if modern society has lost its capacity for reverence in his book Reverence: Renewing a Forgotten Virtue.
  
  In this thin 256-page book, he eloquently examines the meaning of reverence and explores it as an important aspect of a moral life, defining it as "the well-developed capacity to have the feelings of awe, respect, and shame when these are the right feelings to have" as well as "the virtue that keeps human beings from trying to act like gods".
  
  Part opinion, part historical, Woodruff uses examples from the past – such as principles from ancient Greek and Confucian ideals – to back his arguments up in a clear and easily understood way. For example, he cross references the importance of reverence in various settings and in different cultures, specifically ancient Greece, Confucian China and present day university life.
  
  Author Woodruff teaches humanities at the University of Texas at Austin and hopes that this book of his would inspire readers to live their life with reverence rather than to rebel for the sake of criticism.
  
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• 
  Bob

  I read this book over a year ago, but I still think of it from time to time. Reverence: awe, respect and shame, all involving something bigger than ourselves that can't be controlled by us, and not necessarily religious. Something which seems to make each of us a better person. It doesn't mean blind obedience. One can protest one's government... out of reverence for justice. It's what people feel is lacking when they feel "dissed." Where there is contempt, ridicule and condescension there is a lack of reverence. Good-natured humor can puncture the pompous and deflate the irreverent, but irreverent humor has much of meanness and cruelty in it. Where politicans use destructive tactics to best their opponents, there is a lack of reverence. And it's why I'm agnostic instead of atheistic. Because somehow I feel that it's healthier to allow for the possibility that there is something larger than myself which I can't control that may, just may, work in my favor from time to time. With reverence there is hope. With hope, there is a lack of desperation. With a lack of desperation, I'm inclined to be nicer to others and to myself. I don't remember all the questions and answers raised by this book. But its general theme is one I'm reminded of almost daily, especially when I see a beautiful cloud formation.
• 
  Glen

  A provocative and rich look at reverence that has given me much to reflect on. Woodruff treats the topic as a virtue that crosses religious and cultural barriers. He makes ample references to classical Greek thinking, as well as, Chinese thoughts.
  
  Essentially, reverence in this work is viewed as the capacity for right feelings that move you in the right direction towards others, life and responsibilities. This definition gives the concept great social consequences as Woodruff shows the practical dimensions in politics, leadership, teaching and home life. It really was a masterful work when it comes to the implications of irreverence in the public square.
  
  While I was seeking more attachment to religious belief (he emphatically refuses to make this connection), I was content with the way he used reverence to refute relativism and to state that different belief systems can hold mutual respect (i.e., the fruit of reverence) by focusing on their shared approach to human limitations and dependency on One who is greater. I highly recommend this book to those wanting to take a philosophical look at why ceremony, significant rituals and meaningful respect at crucial to the human race.
• 
  Tim

  There is a certain vagueness in the author's use of reverence, but I do like this attempt at definition: "Reverence is the well-developed capacity to have the feelings of awe, respect, and shame when these are the right feelings to have." It is tied initially to ritual and Woodrufff examines it especially in its Greek origins and also in Chinese thought. He finds reverence to exist potentially in religion, but not necessarily. Reverence recognizes human limitations, is awestruck towards those things outside our control (God, truth, nature, death as examples), and respects fellow human beings. I like these points and while he does push back against religion a bit, I realize it is true that religion and reverence do not go hand in hand. Too often religion begets arrogance that dismisses reverence and knows it holds the entire truth. Found his discussions of the silent leader and of home to be the best examinations of reverence, perhaps because they were grounded in particular details.
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  Jacob

  I think anyone (who cares about living a good life) would benefit from reading this book. The author argues compellingly for the necessity of fostering reverence in human beings and the value of behaving virtuously. By detaching the notion of reverence both from belief and compulsion, Woodruff explains ethics in rational, humanistic terms. In his discussion of classical Greek philosophy, for instance, he reminds the reader, "Reverence calls us to be conscious of bare humanity, the humanity of our species" (80). The author also confronts the shortcomings of moral relativism and faith-based ethics by defining a virtue simply as "a capacity, cultivated by experience and training, to have emotions that make you feel like doing good things" (56). Overall, the book illustrates with profound clarity the essential and perennial role of the virtue of reverence.
• 
  Sydney

  A good subject and very well written. Uses Ancient Greek poetry and Chinese philosophy to support his case. He manages to steer away from the predictable religious approach and makes a graceful and emotive argument for reviving respect and humility. I'm reminded of a quotes by Einstein.
  
  "A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death." AE
• 
  Mary

  Yes, this led to much cognitive dissonance as I struggled to apply the principles of quietness, listening and respect of overarching principles to my multi-task, interrupt, fight life. The chapter on teaching was especially interesting to me. The book’s flaws are mostly that it repeats ad infinitum the same principles and that it gives no discernible conclusion, just kind of gives you the chapter on home and then...ends. The first couple of chapters are adequate for him to make his point, especially the examples of live without reverence. Reverence, it seems, is a lot like meekness applied.
• 
  Andrew

  This is not Woodruff's fault as much as mine, but the final few chapters began to seem somewhat repetitive, and rather to cloud the luminosity of reverence than to focus it. Still, this is a very intersting book which reads ancient Greek poetry and philosophy in light of Confucian (chiefly Mencian) thought, and vice versa. As a culture, whave lost much reverence, I agree. Woodruff makes a good case that in losing the sense of reverence, we lose much that makes us human.