Reclaiming Virtue: How We Can Develop the Moral Intelligence to Do the Right Thing at the Right Time for the Right Reason

by John Bradshaw

Book Overview

In his groundbreaking New York Times bestselling books and compelling PBS specials, John Bradshaw transformed our understanding of the family and became a dominant figure in the field of addiction and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0553095927
• ISBN13: 9780553095920
• Release Date: April 2009
• Publisher: Bantam
• Length: 516 Pages
• Weight: 1.72 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.7" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Keep it Real

As always John Bradshaw keeps it real by sharing about his own struggles in life and offers great insights. Reclaiming Virtue is an important reading on developing moral intelligence.I enjoyed reading it.

He has it now...

Back in the 80s, like many others, I found myself listening to and reading the insights of John Bradshaw. However, at that time, there seemed to be something missing in what he had to say. To me he just didn't quite get it. Well, all that has changed. His new book, "Reclaiming Virtue" is excellent and whatever Bradshaw was missing in the 80s, he has now found it. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The topic of virtue has been a lifelong interest to me and I have read almost everything on the subject. This book by Bradshaw is one of the best I have seen for making the idea of virtuous living simple to the average person who does not have time to study all the great philosophers such as Aristotle, Zeno, Aquinas and others who were the developers of virtue ethics. Yet, this is no New Age fluffly read... While presented so that everyone can understand it, the book is quite insightful and complete. What I like most about this book is that Bradshaw is well known and well known in many circles including some circles that really NEED to read this book. Our culture in general is in dire need to read this and other books on virtue. We are currently lost in a world of subjectivism, relativism and other nonsensical ideas. This is of course a cultural knee-jerk reaction to over-bearing, religious institutions that forgot about the spirit of the law and kept hitting us over the head with the letter of the law. We went from one extreme to the other. Now, Bradshaw and a few others, are re-introducing the Western world to a long forgotten truth that REALLY does liberate us... the truth that only by living a virtuous life can we be fully human and truly happy.

Reclaiming Virtue - Timely and Inspiring

John Bradshaw illuminates a subject that is lost in our contemporary world of complicity and personal aggrandizement - virtue. A magnificent work - scholarly, deeply personal and intriguing. The author pulls from many fields, in addition to his own personal experiences both as a therapist and a man in recovery, to reveal the compelling necessity of personal virtue. A fine book, well worth reading.

Reclaiming Virtue

The depth and commitment of this writters exploration of the human condition is humbling, in this particular work as well as other topics he has explored and argued in the past. John Bradshaw, good to hear from you again, and again,

Reclaiming Our Guardian Angles of Virtue

Reclaiming Virtue will go down in history as the most important book of the 21st century. John Bradshaw begins with 10 captivating moral moments that crystallize moral intelligence in a compelling way. He writes this book for all of us who are discouraged by the frightening absence of integrity in our social institutions and lack of humility in our leadership. John helps us realize how dynamic we all become when claiming our internal authority for making right decisions. He validates ancient wisdom that we are vessels with an inborn moral compass- that we can call on our innate voice of conscience in these most troubling times. John's book gives an eye widening account that our natural emotional intelligence has been scuttled by cultural rules of obedience. When our feelings have been shamed through perfectionism we can't know what moves us to make good decisions. His assertion that moral decisions are made from "affective inclination" is a ground shaking challenge to our assumption that logic, and intellectual rules constitute the foundation of moral action. He bravely goes against the grain of totalistic systems created "for our own good" that fail to account for the diversity and uniqueness that must be accepted in all of us for the human race to prevail. John inspires us to connect through the "guardian angel" within us. He shows how to help our children develop moral intelligence by using non-shaming, strength based communication styles for building skills in emotional competence. He shares wisdom from his own most vulnerable moments that we can't make sense of our lives without awareness of our feelings. In revealing his personal suffering and journey towards virtue John Bradshaw's book stands apart. By starting with emotion Reclaiming Virtue constitutes a radical change in moral education. Kip Flock