We like to think of ourselves and our friends and families as pretty good people. The more we put our characters to the test, however, the more we see that we are decidedly a mixed bag. Fortunately there are some promising strategies - both secular and religious - for developing better characters.

Christian B. Miller is A.C. Reid Professor of Philosophy at Wake Forest University and Director of the Character Project, funded by the John Templeton Foundation and Templeton World Charity Foundation. He is the author of over 75 papers as well as two books with Oxford University Press, Moral Character: An Empirical Theory (2013) and Character and Moral Psychology (2014). He is also the editor or co-editor of Essays in the Philosophy of Religion (Oxford University Press), Character: New Directions from Philosophy, Psychology, and Theology (Oxford University Press), and several other volumes.

• Acknowledgements


• Preface


• Part One: What is Character and Why is it Important?


• Chapter One: What Are We Talking About?


• Chapter Two: Why Should We Bother Developing a Good Character?


• Part Two: What Does Our Character Actually Look Like Today??


• Chapter Three: Helping


• Chapter Four: Harming


• Chapter Five: Lying


• Chapter Six: Cheating


• Chapter Seven: Putting the Pieces about Character Together


• Part Three: What Can We Do to Improve Our Characters?


• Chapter Eight: Some Initial and Less Promising Strategies


• Chapter Nine: Some Strategies with More Promise for Improving Our Characters


• Chapter Ten: Improving Our Characters with Divine Assistance


• Works Cited