Made for Goodness: And Why This Makes All the Difference

by Desmond Tutu, Mpho Tutu

Overview

Over the years the same questions get asked of Desmond Tutu, the archbishop, Nobel Peace Prize winner, and veteran of the moral movement that ended apartheid in South Africa: "How can you be so hopeful after witnessing so much evil?" "Why are you so sure goodness will triumph in the end?" This book is his answer.

Now, more than any other time in history, our world needs this message: that we are made for goodness and it is up to us to live up to our destiny.

We recognize Archbishop Tutu from the headlines as an inspirational figure who has witnessed some of the world's most sinister moments and chosen to be an ambassador of reconciliation amid political, diplomatic, and natural disasters. Now, we get a glimpse into his personal spirituality—and a better understanding of the man behind a lifetime of good works. In this intimate and personal sharing of his heart, written with his daughter, Episcopal priest Mpho Tutu, Tutu engages his reader with touching stories from his own life, as well as grisly memories from his work in the darkest corners of the world. There, amid the darkness, he calls us to hope, to joy, and to claim the goodness that we were made for. Tutu invites us to take on the disciplines of goodness, the practices that are key to finding fulfillment, meaning, and happiness for our lives.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780061706608
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	03/08/2011
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	224
Sales rank:	46,278
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Desmond Mpilo Tutu was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984. In 1986 he was elected archbishop of Cape Town, the highest position in the Anglican Church in South Africa. In 1994, after the end of apartheid and the election of Nelson Mandela, Tutu was appointed as chair of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate apartheid-era crimes. His policy of forgiveness and reconciliation has become an international example of conflict resolution and a trusted method of postconflict reconstruction. He is currently the chair of The Elders, where he gives vocal defense of human rights and campaigns for the oppressed.

The Reverend Mpho A. Tutu is currently the executive director of The Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

1 The Difference Goodness Makes 1

2 Stop "Being Good" 22

3 An Invitation to Wholeness 45

4 Free to Choose 65

5 The Habits of Wrongness 94

6 Where Is God When We Suffer? 110

7 Where Is God When We Fail 127

8 Why Does God Let Us Sin? 147

9 Going Home to Goodness 161

10 Hearing God's Voice 183

11 Seeing with God's Eyes 208

Acknowledgements 233

What People are Saying About This

Richard Branson

“Even with the incredible trauma and cruelty he endured in South Africa, Archbishop Tutu still radiates love and happiness. This book is a great gift to the world and will help all of us celebrate our goodness and oneness.”

Thomas Cahill

“I doubt there is anyone on this Earth with a deeper sense of God’s presence and goodness than Archbishop Tutu. If you are thirsty for spiritual drink, come to the water of this beautiful book.”

Barbara Brown Taylor

“With disarming narrative skill,...Tutu and his daughter...tell true stories in which both brutality and hopefulness turn out to be as intimate as they are global. If you are still open to being convinced that goodness changes everything, then this book is for you.”

Mary Robinson

“Desmond Tutu has walked the talk all his adult life. We can all be grateful that, together with his daughter Mpho, he has now shared his secrets for why he has so much hope and joy.”

Editorial Reviews

Desmond Tutu has walked the talk all his adult life. We can all be grateful that, together with his daughter Mpho, he has now shared his secrets for why he has so much hope and joy.

Mary Robinson

With disarming narrative skill,...Tutu and his daughter...tell true stories in which both brutality and hopefulness turn out to be as intimate as they are global. If you are still open to being convinced that goodness changes everything, then this book is for you.

Barbara Brown Taylor

I doubt there is anyone on this Earth with a deeper sense of God’s presence and goodness than Archbishop Tutu. If you are thirsty for spiritual drink, come to the water of this beautiful book.

Thomas Cahill

"Even with the incredible trauma and cruelty he endured in South Africa, Archbishop Tutu still radiates love and happiness. This book is a great gift to the world and will help all of us celebrate our goodness and oneness."

Sir - Richard Branson

Even with the incredible trauma and cruelty he endured in South Africa, Archbishop Tutu still radiates love and happiness. This book is a great gift to the world and will help all of us celebrate our goodness and oneness.

Sir Richard Branson

By giving the audience glimpses into his prayer life and other spiritual disciplines,…Tutu offer[s] a series of poignant reflections that speak about [his] lifelong quests to choose righteousness in a world gone awry.

Sojourners

Desmond Tutu and his daughter Mpho Tutu have seen more evil than most of us can begin to imagine. . . . That is why their book is shocking: How can they say that all people ‘are fundamentally good’? . . . It is a perfect book for Easter.

The Christian Century

Archbishop Desmond Tutu is the author of Made for Goodness - written with his daughter Mpho Tutu, also a priest in the Anglican communion - … [a] reflection on faith, forgiveness and reconciliation.

NPR.org

As the authors so clearly and beautifully say in this book, ‘anyone can choose to cultivate compassion.’ Thank you Archbishop Tutu for helping us all come back home to our true nature, which is inherently good and whole, and touch the peace that is always there for us.

Thich Nhat Hanh

Nobel Peace Prize–winner Desmond Tutu, who lived through South African apartheid and helped to clean up its criminal consequences by chairing the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, could write a grocery list and people would get something out of it. With his daughter Mpho, an Episcopal priest in Washington, D.C., the retired Anglican archbishop writes a relatively personal book about his fundamental, faith-based beliefs about human nature: people are basically good because they are made in God’s image. He maintains this in the face of the horrific events he has witnessed in his country and elsewhere, and he bases his belief in part on simple experiences throughout his life that have involved family and, significantly, his failures. Tutu’s humility is striking; he is comfortable in his own skin despite being raised in a culture that officially deemed his skin color second-class. This book is not nearly as dramatic or compelling as No Future Without Forgiveness, based on his work with the Reconciliation Commission; on the other hand, it is heartening to know, or remember, that faith can be learned, reinforced, and expressed as much around the dinner table as in the public square. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

Desmond Tutu, Anglican archbishop of Cape Town, as well as chairman of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, hardly needs an introduction. His latest book was cowritten with his daughter, an Episcopal priest as well as executive director of the Tutu Institute for Prayer and Pilgrimage. The book is founded on the broad notion that we are created with the freedom to choose good or evil but also incline fundamentally to the good. Abstract theology or spirituality has never been Archbishop Tutu's way; accordingly, this book flows effortlessly through narratives that illustrate Tutu's unquenchable hope. VERDICT A crucially important book from the Nobel Peace Prize winner; a witness to our tumultuous times.

Library Journal