JACKSON, Tenn. — Oct. 7, 2015 — New York Times author and columnist David Brooks said places like Union University are important in a culture of people who are increasingly self-interested and prideful.
“Universities like Union cultivate inner light,” Brooks said. “They have a focus on the soul.”
Brooks was the keynote speaker at Union’s 18th annual scholarship banquet Tuesday night. He spoke about the importance of virtues such as humility and gratitude in a culture that he said is becoming more narcissistic.
Brooks said the number of people who think they are very important has skyrocketed in recent years, and the desire to be famous has become more prevalent. He said students at universities are taught to do whatever they can to get ahead.
“Along with the interest in self-esteem and fame has gone a diminution in moral language,” Brooks said. “…We’re using a lot more economic words this year; we’re using a lot fewer moral words.”
He said people with this kind of vocabulary and culture lose a quality of inner depth and an understanding of the soul.
“You lose the ability to speak with a specific moral language,” he said. “….You live a life of moral mediocrity, grading yourself on a forgiving curve.”
Brooks said people who cultivate a moral language and live life in a different culture radiate an inner light of grace. He said such people have made four big commitments: a commitment to a spouse and a family, a commitment to a faith and a creed, a commitment to a community and a commitment to a location. He said universities play a major role in these commitments.
“Universities can open up opportunities and provide students a chance to fall in love with those things,” Brooks said. “And then some of those loves will be lifelong.”
He said universities provide enduring friendships and exemplars in the form of teachers. He said most colleges and universities offer these opportunities, but universities like Union offer more.
“They have a focus on the soul, ” Brooks said.
He said students at Christian schools are aware of the state of their souls every day, and they are pushed to improve it as much as their exterior skills. He said Christian schools give students a vocabulary that includes words like soul, sin, grace and redemption.
“If you don’t know what those words mean, you’ve no handholds as you go through life,” Brooks said. “You can’t understand the moral drama that’s happening inside because you don’t have the words.”
Brooks said Christian colleges instill a strong sense of inner character and cultivate inner light. He divided the virtues into two sets: the résumé virtues and the eulogy virtues.
“The résumé virtues are the ones we bring into the marketplace,” he said “…The eulogy virtues are the things they say about you after you’re dead.” He said most colleges focus on the résumé virtues, but the eulogy virtues are more important.
Brooks has experience in higher education and is currently teaching a course at Yale University. In addition to his work at the New York Times, Brooks is a regular analyst on “PBS NewsHour” and NPR’s “All Things Considered” and has written several books, including “The Road to Character,” “The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character and Achievement,” “Bobos in Paradise” and “On Paradise Drive.”
He has also worked at The Wall Street Journal and The Weekly Standard and has been a contributing editor at Newsweek and the Atlantic Monthly.
Union’s scholarship banquet is an annual event to celebrate donors who give to Union’s student scholarship fund. Previous speakers have included Tony Blair, George H.W. Bush, Margaret Thatcher, Condoleezza Rice, Mikhail Gorbachev, Mike Huckabee and Ben Carson, among others.