{"id":8781,"date":"2022-01-28T08:00:19","date_gmt":"2022-01-28T15:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/schaeffersghost\/?p=8781"},"modified":"2022-01-19T13:42:03","modified_gmt":"2022-01-19T20:42:03","slug":"common-good-christians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/schaeffersghost\/2022\/01\/common-good-christians\/","title":{"rendered":"Common Good Christians?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

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Image: IVP<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

In political circles, there has been a lot of talk about the place (and value, depending on who is doing the talking) of \u201ccommon-good conservatism<\/a>.\u201d While this isn\u2019t the place to dig into that particular discussion, this is the place to at least briefly reflect on whether Christians bring anything to the table in the discussion of the \u201ccommon good.\u201d This question is raised for intellectuals in the new book\u00a0Public Intellectuals and the Common Good<\/em><\/a>, edited by Todd Ream, Jerry Pattengale, and Christopher Devers.<\/p>\n

Public Intellectuals and the Common Good <\/em>is a collection of essays by noted Christian public intellectuals such as Miroslav Volf, John Perkins, and Katelyn Beaty. The first set of essays reflect\u00a0 theologically on the role of the intellectual in publicly pursuing the common good (reasonably enough). The second set raises the question of how to do that within specific professions. The third and concluding set of essays involve personal reflection on how the common good ought to influence our approach to the common good. As with any collection of essays, some are stronger than others in terms of content and quality, but compared to most essay collections this one is generally well-written and interesting. You\u2019ll find much material for reflection here.<\/p>\n

What you\u00a0won\u2019t\u00a0<\/em>find\u2013and probably shouldn\u2019t expect to find\u2013is a solution to the problem that every attempt of a Christian to wrestle with the common good must always run into and, ultimately, founder upon: the problem of defining the common good in a way that is true to the Christian faith\u00a0and\u00a0<\/em>applies to the whole world. This is not a new problem. It goes back to Scripture, and was first (and best) wrestled with in detail by Augustine in\u00a0City of God<\/em>. To over-simplify the problem, Christianity teaches that the \u201ccommon good\u201d of all human beings is a restored relationship with God and with each other. These can only be achieved through the reconciliation that comes by means of faith alone in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but these will also only be achieved in the ultimate sense after Christ returns. The world does not agree with this as a description of \u201cthe common good.\u201d (Nor should we expect the world to agree with it, if it did it wouldn\u2019t be classified as \u201cthe world.\u201d)<\/p>\n

Now, this difference doesn\u2019t mean that Christians can\u2019t live in\/work with the world. We\u00a0must\u00a0<\/em>live in and work with the world. But it does mean that when Christians are working on, well, anything\u2013criminal justice reform, voting rights, election integrity, alleviating poverty, etc, etc, etc\u2013in our view we are always working on issues of secondary importance. That isn\u2019t to say that those issues aren\u2019t important at all (I happen to think some of them are\u00a0very<\/em> important). Just that we are going into those situations from a perspective that is already going to differ from that of those with whom we work.<\/p>\n

Again, Public Intellectuals and the Common Good<\/em> doesn\u2019t directly engage this tension. Instead, it just assumes (rightly) that we can work together and be a blessing to the world with our thought, words, and service. Intellectuals have an obligation not to withdraw into monastic isolation, but rather to step into the needs of the world with a desire to serve while evangelizing. And to that end, Public Intellectuals and the Common Good\u00a0<\/em>is a helpful guide to what that might look like.<\/p>\n

Dr. Coyle Neal is co-host of the\u00a0City of Man Podcast<\/a> an Amazon Associate (which is linked in this blog), and an Associate Profess<\/em>or of Political Science at\u00a0Southwest Baptist University<\/a>\u00a0in Bolivar, MO<\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Review of “Public Intellectuals and the Common Good”, edited by Todd Ream, Jerry Pattengale, and Christopher Devers. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1469,"featured_media":8793,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,5,115],"tags":[1219,1295],"class_list":["post-8781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","category-christian","category-philosophy","tag-college","tag-common-good"],"yoast_head":"\nCommon Good Christians?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Review of "Public Intellectuals and the Common Good", edited by Todd Ream, Jerry Pattengale, and Christopher Devers.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/schaeffersghost\/2022\/01\/common-good-christians\/\" 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