The Road to Wisdom: On Truth, Science, Faith, and Trust

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Language of God and former director of the National Institutes of Health, a deeply thoughtful guidebook to get us beyond politics and back to the sources of wisdom.

As the COVID-19 pandemic revealed, we have become not just a hyper-partisan society but also a deeply cynical one, distrustful of all traditional sources of knowledge and wisdom. Skepticism about vaccines led to the needless deaths of at least 250,000 Americans. “Do your own research” is now a rallying cry in many online rabbit holes. Yet experts can make mistakes, and institutions can lose their moral compass. So how can we find navigate through all this?

In The Road to Wisdom, Francis Collins reminds us of the four core sources of judgement and clear thinking: truth, science, faith, and trust. Drawing on his work from the Human Genome Project and heading the National Institutes of Health, as well as on ethics, philosophy, and Christian theology, Collins makes a robust, thoughtful case for each of these sources—their reliability, and their limits. Ultimately, he shows how they work together, not separately—and certainly not in conflict. It is only when we relink these four pillars of wisdom that we can begin to discern the best path forward in life.

​Erudite, thoughtful, and deeply wise, Francis Collins leads us beyond politics to surer footing. Here is the moral, philosophical, and scientific framework with which to address the problems of our time—including threats to our democracy, partisanship, racism, and climate change—but also to guide us in our daily lives. This is a book that will repay many readings, and resolve dilemmas that we all face, every day.