Together for the Common Good: Towards a National Conversation

How can we work together for the common good today? Thirteen contributors – Christian, Jewish, Muslim, non-religious – discuss the common good from a wide range of viewpoints. How have thinkers like Aristotle and Edmund Burke talked about the common good in the past? Catholic Social Teaching has a lot to say about the common good: what does the common good mean for the world’s great religious traditions today? How can we usefully talk about the common good in a plural society? What responsibility has the state for the common good? Can the market serve the common good? If we care about the common good, what should we think – and do - about immigration, education, the NHS, inequality, and freedom? This book starts from the example of David Sheppard and Derek Worlock, the Anglican Bishop and Roman Catholic Archbishop, who famously worked together for the good of the city of Liverpool in the 1980s. The contributors call for a national conversation about how, despite our differences, we can work together – locally, nationally, internationally – for the common good.

Table of Contents:
Part 1: The Language of the Common Good 1. The Language of the Common Good - Anna Rowlands 2. The Unexamined Society: Public Reasoning, Social Justice and the Common Good - Andrew Bradstock Part 2: Traditions of the Common Good 3. Aristotle and the Politics of the Common Good Today - Patrick Riordan SJ 4. Wealth and Common Good - Esther D. Reed 5. ' A Disposition to Preserve, and an Ability to Improve': Edmund Burke and the Common Good in a Revolutionary Age - Samuel Burgess 6. The Common Good after the Death of God - Jon E. Wilson 7. Evangelicanism and the Language(s) of the Common Good - Jonathan Chaplin 8. Social Action that Crosses Boundaries and Overcomes Barriers: A Muslim Perspective on the Common Good - Tehmina Kazi 9. The Church of England and the Common Good - Malcolm Brown Part 3: The Market and the Common Good 10. Markets and the Common Good - Brian Griffiths 11. Pluralism and the Common Good in a Market Economy - Philip Booth 12. Politics, Employment Policies and the Young Generation - Maurice Glasman 13. Market Economies, Catholic Social Teaching and the Common Good - Clifford Longley

About the Author :
Nicholas Sagovsky is an Anglican priest and holds professorial posts in Theology at two ecumenical universities: Liverpool Hope and Roehampton. He has been Canon Theologian at Westminster Abbey, William Leech Professorial Research Fellow in Applied Christian Theology at Newcastle University and Dean of Clare College, Cambridge. Peter McGrail is Head of the Department of Theology, Philosophy and Religious Studies at Liverpool Hope University.

Review :
The common good, differently expressed, can be found in all our faiths. But the question remains of how it should be made real, who needs to take ownership of it, and how easy it is to make a difference when public attitudes seem to be shying away from any such concept. This book gives us brilliant insights into how faith and other leaders think of what can and should be done. Together for the Common Good” is a timely and accessible collection of helpful essays about a phrase which has become synonymous with Catholic Social teaching but has application for believer and non-believer alike. Combined with a belief in human dignity, and that every human being should be treated, as if made in the image of their Maker, the ideas which constitute the Common Good should inform political manifestos and discourse about policies, priorities, and the allocation of resources. This is a remarkable book, written by some of the experts of different religious faiths. It should be read by all those interested in human rights, justice and politics in a secular and multi cultural society. To work towards the common good is to work for peace.