The Character Gap: How Good are We?

Christian B. Miller
Oxford University Press, 2018, xvii + 276 pp., hbk, £15.17

This short, conversational text aims to explore largely philosophical and briefly theological accounts of morality. It does so through a particular lens, that of character, and character as it pertains to assessing humans as moral agents. It is a book intended to appeal to a wide audience and situates itself thus: whilst Aristotle’s account of the virtues and Kant’s ethics underpin the work; they are presented as one of many philosophical accounts of the virtues. The focus is instead on what social psychological reveals about our character, rather than philosophical argumentation. This is then augmented with a brief exposition of a Christian understanding of virtue at the end of the book.