Book Club: The Character Gap, 4, Improving character by way of divine assistance?

Character is a crucial component of human ethical life, as Christian Miller discusses in part I of his The Character Gap. He then goes on two demonstrate, in part II, that there is a gap between where our characters typically are and where we would want them to be. We are not, on average, really bad people. But neither are we, on average, really good ones. There is plenty of room for improvement. Which is why part III of Miller’s book is so compelling, as it explores a number of strategies that, empirically speaking, have been shown to either work or not work if our goal is to improve our characters. I had originally thought not to comment on the last chapter of the book, on how divine assistance can be helpful to become better persons, because even though it doesn’t speak to me as a secular minded individual, I do not with to engage in polemic about religion for the sake of ruffling feathers. But, in order to be intellectually honest, I did read that last chapter, and I did not like it. I’m going to discuss it here not because I wish to criticize religion, but because Miller does a pretty bad job there, and readers should be forewarned, particularly as it contrasts with the highly readable and eminently sensible rest of the book. So, here we go.