In Search of the Common Good: Christian Fidelity in a Fractured World

Common life in our society is in decline. Our communities are disintegrating, as the loss of meaningful work and the breakdown of the family leave us anxious and alone--indeed, half of all Americans report daily feelings of loneliness. Our public discourse is polarized and hateful. Ethnic minorities face systemic injustices and the ever-present fear of violence and deportation. Economic inequalities are widening. In this book, Jake Meador diagnoses our society's decline as the failure of a particular story we've told about ourselves: the story of modern liberalism. He shows us how that story has led to our collective loss of meaning, wonder, and good work, and then recovers each of these by grounding them in a different story--a story rooted in the deep tradition of the Christian faith. Our story doesn't have to end in loneliness and despair. There are reasons for hope--reasons grounded in a different, better story. In Search of the Common Good reclaims a vision of common life for our fractured times: a vision that doesn't depend on the destinies of our economies or our political institutions, but on our citizenship in a heavenly city. Only through that vision--and that citizenship--can we truly work together for the common good.

Review :
"Jake Meador has written a learned cri de coeur that situates the division and confusion American Christians face, not in politics, but in our theological imaginations. Carefully analyzing the sources of anger and despair in American life through the lens of the ideas about the common good advanced by Christian luminaries from the church fathers to the Reformers, Meador shows how a renewed understanding of the common good leads out of despair toward hope."--Jonathan D. Askonas, assistant professor of politics at the Catholic University of America, fellow at the Center for the Study of Statesmanship "What if the malaise that grips American communities is the fruit of a church that has failed to bear faithful witness to her King? Jake Meador's convicting yet hope-giving book calls the church to take up the practice of distinctively Christian forms of membership in order to serve the common good. Meador reminds us that when Christians pursue hidden fidelity rather than public praise, sacrificial service rather than personal peace and affluence, and patient catechesis rather than flashy policy proposals, it is then that they will bless their neighbors."--Jeffrey Bilbro, author of Virtues of Renewal: Wendell Berry's Sustainable Forms, editor in chief at Front Porch Republic "Christian cultural commentators find themselves caught between the Scylla of despair and the Charybdis of triumphalism. It takes a wise, experienced navigator to sail between the two temptations. Meador's book somehow manages to pair a trenchant diagnosis of our polarized communities with a hopeful prognosis built on a deep theological conception of the good life. It challenges but does not provoke. It offers hope without presumption. Few will agree with Meador on every practical or theological point, but this is exactly why this book deserves to find a wide readership."--David Henreckson, assistant professor of theology, Dordt College "I've long admired the breadth of knowledge on display in Jake Meador's writing. You'll see his characteristic combination of deep learning with an earthy touch in this wide-ranging book. You won't need to agree with every conclusion in order to appreciate how he makes you think and act more deliberately. We need more writers like him to help us live as faithful Christians in a fractured world."--Collin Hansen, editorial director for The Gospel Coalition, coauthor of A God-Sized Vision "Jake Meador is one of the most insightful evangelical writers of his generation. Without downplaying the severity of the crises that are currently crippling both our churches and our country, he nevertheless sketches what a quietly hopeful Christian witness in our troubled times might look like. By turns diagnostic, instructive, expository, and artful and with a disarming lack of cynicism throughout, this moving book channels Wendell Berry in arguing for the renewable dignity of disappearing virtues."--Wesley Hill, associate professor of biblical studies, Trinity School for Ministry, Ambridge, Pennsylvania "Jake's book accurately diagnoses some of the ills of our modern world and, even more importantly, provides a vivid, specific vision of a full and flourishing Christian life."--Leah Libresco, author of Building the Benedict Option and Arriving at Amen "Like everything else Jake Meador writes, his call to reflect on our pursuit of the common good is a thought-provoking, worthwhile read. It's also a timely one, if only because it seems so easy to spot our common ills. A distorted notion of freedom in America has given birth to the slavery of self and all its attendant pathologies: loneliness, existential anomie, and pointless work, which form the inner reality of economic instability and sociopolitical isolation. Unfortunately, a malformed, superficial, and ill-catechized church reflects the world at just this point. What, then, may we hope for our common life? Drawing on the wisdom of Scripture, natural law, and the practices of the Christian tradition, Jake points us to a vision of work, community, and politics attuned to the rhythms of creation, reflective of the eternal city and ultimately rooted in the goodness of God himself. I was challenged by this book and I know I'll be wrestling with and reflecting on its argument for some time. I suspect I won't be the only one."--Derek Rishmawy, PhD student at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, columnist at Christianity Today, cohost of Mere Fidelity podcast