While extensively considered ambiguous, Dr. Henry asserts that civility is one the most neglected and misunderstood personality assets. Having no common standard of comparison, civility is a precondition needed for people to be civil to others. It is the fertilizer that makes the soil ready to produce a bountiful crop.
The author also claims incivility can be a vile and destructive human behavioral trait. Incivility is a condition of the person being hateful and vengeful to others. It is the manure that yields adverse consequences in a broken world.
Concerning incivility, we can say:
- the political scene is awash with incivility in the US congress and tends to bring about the cessation of statesmanship.
- it causes divisions in the workplace involving uncivil communication and worst of all, promotes evil relationship-oriented behavior.
Credence is given to these assessments of civility and incivility when examined from different perceptions. An objective evaluation of these two unlike attributes form the foundational thoughts of this book's author. Out of these intriguing ideas, he believes that only when different perspectives are brought together can we gain a clearer understanding of civil matters. It is "a point in a process where problems are solved."
This is the way we can gain a clearer interpretation of civil matters. It is at the point where the godly and wicked perceptions of civil issues connect. In geometry, an intersection point is the crossing of two distinct lines. Such a point is discovered in the message of the cross of Calvary. This junction is where the vertical love of God intersects one's horizontal love of mankind, and in a broken world, it brings about the transformational change of incivility to civility.
Dr. Clay Henry received his DDS at Baylor College of Dentistry and subsequently, earned a PhD at MIT. He advanced his professional career as a teacher, professor and researcher. He is a retired colonel having served in the U.S. Army. His wife, Rose Marie, unexpectedly succumbed to blood cancer in 2019. Dr. Henry now lives in an assisted living facility in Rockwall, Texas. He has published three Christian books: Self Exposed, Your Health in a World of Conflict, and Beyond Wondering about Murder from a Judeo-Christian Perspective. He hopes these three books and The Evil of Incivility in a Broken World will ignite real interest in spirituality.