Because Ideas Matter...
The faculty and staff of Butler University's College of Liberal
Arts and Sciences presents
Recommended Readings
Made for Goodness and Why
This Makes All the Difference
by Desmond Tutu and Mpho Tutu, Harper Collins, 2010
Reviewed by Richard McGowan
Written by Noble Peace Prize winner, chair
of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and
Butler degree holder, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and his daughter,
Mpho Tutu, herself the executive director of the Tutu Institute for
Prayer and Pilgrimage, chair of the board for the Global AIDS
Alliance, and an Episcopal priest, Made for Goodness is tonic for
troubled times.
The Tutus invite us to "the practices of
goodness-noticing, savoring, thinking, enjoying, and being
thankful." Their invitation is often in the form of anecdote, both
personal, gentle, and touching as well as harsh, horrid, and
hateful.
Readers learn of Bishop Tutu's enduring
regret that he did not comfort his father as the elder Tutu lay
dying, Mpho's inattentiveness to the wont of her house help, Bishop
Tutu's boyhood experiences, Mpho's community service as becoming
acquainted with the figures in recent South African history,
including Allen Boesak, Ambrose Reeves, the Mogopa people, and
Phila Portia Ndwandwe. Those figures, among others, are cited as
models of moral goodness.
Of course, moral evil is very apparent in a
book about the days of apartheid. People often ask Bishop Tutu
"What makes you so certain that the world is going to get better?
This book is my answer." The answer is largely spiritual.
Nonetheless, Made for Goodness need not be
read from inside the circle of faith. The book has value for anyone
who wishes to experience the psychology of goodness and hope. As
such, the book promotes peace, individually and politically.
- Richard McGowan is Instructor of Business Ethics at Butler
University.