“I am sure that you have heard a lot about this subject throughout your life,” Dr. Peter Jake Paris began his speech for the John Hanly Lecture Series on April 21, 2006. The annual lecture series, named after Pingry’s former headmaster, explores character education and ethical behavior through an analysis of guiding principles and challenges. Dr. Paris, the Elmer G. Homrighausen Professor of Christian Social Ethics at Princeton Theological Seminary, was welcomed onto the Hauser Auditorium stage, where he elaborated on “how to become a good person.”
What does being a good person mean? “Being helpful to others, never stealing or cheating …,” Dr. Paris said before going on to list various definitions of what this means before deferring to the “golden rule”—doing onto others as you would have them do unto you. Nevertheless, he believes that knowing this rule is not enough and urged students to develop a habit of conducting good actions. Likening it to developing an art or skill, Dr. Paris insisted that it is only through practice that we are able to form these habits.
In addition to this lesson, the sagacious speaker encouraged learning through the imitation of mentors or role models. Mother Teresa, Gandhi, Rosa Parks, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and Nelson Mandela were just a few of the famous leaders Dr. Paris listed as ethically aligned. He says, “The greatest moral good is to help increase the lives of those at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder.”
Looking at Pingry’s youths as agents of social change, he continued by saying, “Remember that all the major social revolutions in history were undertaken by young people. Only the young have the energy, vision, discernment, and courage to initiate and sustain endeavors aimed at social change. … My challenge to you today is to identify a role model for your life and develop the habit of good action. Inevitably the good that you do will receive its appropriate praise by all who see it.”
A native of Nova Scotia, Dr. Peter Jake Paris is an ordained Baptist minister. He earned both his masters and doctorate from the University of Chicago and has honorary doctoral degrees from Acadia University (his alma mater), McGill University, Lehigh University, and Lafayette College. Prior to coming to Princeton, Dr. Paris taught on the faculties of Vanderbilt University Divinity School and at Howard University School of Divinity. He is the author of several books including The Social Teaching of the Black Church and The Spirituality of African Peoples as well as the editor of The History of the Riverside Church in the City of New York. He has lectured widely throughout Canada, the U.S., Nigeria, Ghana, and South Africa. Dr. Paris presently serves as the principal project director of the Pan-African Seminar of Religious Scholars on Religion and Poverty.
© 2006 The Pingry School
