CCC

Reclaiming the Common Good
How Christians can help re-build our broken world
Edited by Virginia Moffatt
“I believe in the long arc of history, and that what we are seeing is the end of the neoliberal consensus. A new post-austerity consensus is emerging, one where people matter and want to be heard”. Virginia Moffatt
One of the key-note books at Greenbelt 2017 explores what part Christians can play in building a better future of hope, peace, equality and justice.

After decades of political consensus, we are entering a time in which everything about the way we live today, and about how our society and communities are structured, is up for discussion. Many people are feeling empowered to ask:

What kind of world do we want to live in? One that works for a few, or one that works for the common good?

What part can Christians play in building a future of hope, peace, equality and justice?

Reclaiming the Common Good is a collection of essays which consider these themes. Beginning with an explanation of the history and meaning of the term ‘common good’, it explores how the sense of working for this ideal has been lost. Focussing, biblically, on issues such as welfare, austerity, migration, environment, peace and justice, it provides a compellingly fresh and insightful analysis on the state of the UK and the world today, and offers a realistic vision of how it could be better. This vision is rooted in the idea of a new heaven, a new earth, and a new Jerusalem, as suggested in the book of Revelation.

‘The idea for the book came from a conversation about how our political leaders seem to be losing a sense of working for the common good’, explains Virginia Moffatt. ‘The book is for Christians who care about the world they live in, regardless of political persuasion but also non-Christians who would be willing to read the perspectives and use them to advocate for change – and of course politicians and all political parties’, Moffatt adds.

While the election result on June 8th, which saw a resurgent Labour led by Jeremy Corbyn under the campaign slogan ‘for the many not the few’, shocked some and delighted others, Moffatt believes it provided us with an opportunity to open up the debate about what kind of society and world we want to live in and how we can bring that about. The essays in Reclaiming the Common Good represent the ideal catalyst for this debate.

This collection has been compiled and edited by Virginia Moffatt, a writer, community activist and former Chief Operating Officer of the belief and values think-tank, Ekklesia. Its other contributors are: Dr Patrick Riordan SJ, John Moffatt SJ, Simon Barrow, Bernadette Meaden, Dr Simon Duffy, Rev. Vaughan Jones, Savitri Hensman , Ellen Teague, Edward P. Echlin, Henrietta Cullinan, Susan Clarkson and Rev. Dr Simon Woodman.

For media enquiries and/or to request a review copy, please contact either
Will Parkes at willp@darton-longman-todd.co.uk and 020 8875 2811
or Lisa Lewis at lisa@darton-longman-todd.co.uk and 020 8875 2815
Paperback, 224pp, 978-0-232-53315-6, £14.99, July 27 2017