A subset of Moral Ecology Trust Advisors met for the first time over two days at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. Our focus was on our collaboration to create a supplemental volume to the spring 2024 issue of The Hedgehog Review, the Institute’s award-winning journal with a circulation of 7,500. The issue was due out on March 1, 2024, and the book we were creating together was due in the fall of 2024.

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About 15 Advisors discussed the urgency of forming character in a healthy moral ecosystem. After introductory remarks by Ryan S. Olson, James Davison Hunter provided an overview of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture and discussed how our late-modern moment provides an opportunity because it is deeply challenging. Talbot Brewer used his Sidney Award-winning essay to explore the nature of moral formation in our age of “malformation.” Advisors discussed the realities of character and citizen formation as they see it from their various leadership positions.

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After lunch, we turned to the topic of moral sources, to grapple with the idea that formation initiatives that are not deeply rooted in sources other than oneself are not adequate to the challenges of our moment, spurred on with provocations from James Mumford and Ryan Olson. Advisors shared their experiences with drawing from deep sources to form the character of leaders in their various spheres of influence. Over dinner, Jay Tolson shared commentary from his editorial introduction to the forthcoming issue of Hedgehog, which was later entitled “Missing Character.”

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On the next day, Angel Adams Parham provided a compelling example of strong moral sources based on her work in the Black intellectual tradition. Various Advisors expressed their interest and eagerness to engage with this set of sources. Other sources, many of them complementary, were passionately discussed, including Aristotelian virtue ethics and the theology of Augustine. We concluded with a spirited exploration of ways that Advisors could collaborate.

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Advisors who could stay joined others for the Institute’s regular Friday Seminar, which featured Moral Ecology Trust Advisor Jeff Rosen, CEO of the National Constitution Center. Rosen eloquently presented on his recent book on the American founders and virtue, a presentation that was met with friendly challenges and endorsements to which Rosen deftly responded.