Gomes Explains Path to ‘Good Life’

Plummer Professor of Christian Morals Peter J. Gomes knows the way to the good life—and he shared it with an audience of more than 70 people at the Barker Center yesterday.

Speaking at the weekly DuBois Institute Colloquium, Gomes discussed his recent book, The Good Life: Truths That Last In Times of Need, which was published last May.

Life, which Gomes described as an “evidentiary hearing of my 32 years [at Harvard]” is his 11th book.

“I suspect every book I’ve written has been an attempt to update my obituary,” Gomes told an amused audience, which was mostly made up of faculty members and graduate students.

Gomes, also Pusey Minister in the Memorial Church, began his speech with an anecdotes about his earlier days as the head of the DuBois Institute and spoke at length about the process of promoting his book.

He jokingly recalled his experience with publishers in San Francisco who told him that Boston is the hardest place to sell books because the “audiences in Boston are full of people who could have written a better book that you,” Gomes said.

Using that as a segue into the content of his book, Gomes turned to the autobiographical nature of Life, which he said is his best work to date.

In his book, Gomes uses Aristotle’s definition of happiness: “The exercise of vital powers along lines of excellence in a life affording them scope.”

Gomes said that although the definition contains no theological or romantic reference, it still holds a great personal significance to him and plays major role in his book.

Gomes said he felt compelled to write the book after witnessing something peculiar abut the undergraduates he has taught for the last decade.

“The kids we have now as undergraduates are significantly different from their immediate predecessors,” he said.

Specifically, this age group has a desire to live some kind of a noble life, he said, and he wrote this book to help people to do just that.

The noble life can be achieved through the pursuit of four cardinal qualities: prudence, temperance, fortitude, and justice; and three religiously-based qualities: faith, hope, and love, according to Gomes.

After finishing his speech, Gomes opened the floor to questions, promising responses to any topic.

Audience inquiries included a request for a recap of his recent “Patriotism Is Not Enough” sermon at Memorial Church and his opinion on the Catholic Church’s treatment of homosexual priests.

After the talk, audience members praised Gomes’ intellectual and moral contributions to society.

“He’s just an inspiring individual, a beacon who can be trusted...particularly in this time when we look to public intellectuals to speak out on these issues,” said Mark Gwinn, a graduate student at Tufts University.

“He’s absolutely right, the four cardinal qualities and three religious qualities need to be discussed in both public life and private life,” said Sarah Emsley, a post-doctorate fellow in the English department.