David Donovan’s Reviews > Wendell Berry and the Cultivation of Life: A Reader's Guide > Status Update

"A good life consists, in part at least in doing well; and . . . This possibility is an ancient one, having apparently little to do with the progress of science or how much a person knows. And so we must ask how it is that one does not have to know everything in order to do well."

The pleasure arising in the proper context of community is oriented outside of self and towards others, and ultimately toward God. We orient ourselves to the context of God's pleasure, and thus our pleasure is never an end in itself, never narcissistic, but always interpersonal. Sharing our resources and ourselves,...there we come to an appropriate sort of individual pleasure. This is healing pleasure. p. 69