David Brooks, The Road to Character

This is an important book. We’ve caught glimpses of this book shaping up over the last few years through Brooks’ New York Times columns and his various speeches, twice on my campus, many of them at other Christian universities. He has become intensely focused on the formation of moral and spiritual character. A life of self-giving and humility shine through. To my delight, he has spent a great deal of time talking with Christians, reading in the rich tradition of Christian teaching on character. I find him moving in the direction of personal commitment. Along with N. T. Wright’s After We Believe: Why Christian Character Matters (unfortunately not quoted by Brooks), this book is an exceedingly helpful guide to character formation in our post-Christian age of obsessive individualism. This is a must read from one of America’s leading public intellectuals.