Stanley Hauerwas, the Gilbert T. Rowe Professor Emeritus of Divinity and Law at Duke University, has written a book in which he shares letters he sent to his godson offering hard-won wisdom on life and the process of maturing.

The book, The Character of Virtue: Letters to a Godson, was published in April by Eerdmans Publishing Co. It contains 14 letters to Hauerwas’s godson, Laurence Wells, sent on the occasion of Laurence’s baptism and every year thereafter in which the world-renowned theologian and ethicist contemplates a specific virtue and its meaning for a child growing year by year in the Christian faith.

Hauerwas distills centuries of religious thinking and decades of self-reflection into personal epistles on virtues including kindness, courage, humility, and joy.

The book also contains an introduction by the Rev. Dr. Samuel Wells—Laurence’s father and Hauerwas’s friend—telling the story behind these letters and offering insight into what a godparent is and can be. Wells, the vicar of St Martin-in-the-Fields, London, formerly served as dean of Duke University Chapel and research professor of Christian ethics at Duke Divinity School.