What's So Great About 'The Common Good'?
Perhaps best of all, the common good is a matter of choices, not just ideas. And those choices are often local, not grand social schemes. My decisions about where to live and what to eat and buy, as well as what to grow and create, whom to befriend and where to volunteer, whom to employ and how much to pay, aren't just about my private fulfillment. They will also either contribute to others' flourishing or undermine it.
Indeed, all things that are truly good are common goods, meant to be shared and enjoyed together. And if the return of "the common good" reminds us of that truth and that hope, and shapes the way we live among our neighbors, it will have done a world of good.
Andy Crouch, executive producer of This Is Our City, is the author of Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling (InterVarsity Press) and a forthcoming book on power.
Star Trek Into Darkness
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John Mulholland
A little known & relevant event occurred in 1891, the same year as Pope Leo's encyclical, Rerum Novarum. Abraham Kuyper, the Dutch theologian & politician, organized the 1st Christian Social Congress, not repeated again until the 2nd in 1992. http://www.cpjustice.org/stories/storyReader$988 The Center for Public Justice has reprinted Kuyper's lecture, "The Social Problem and the Christian Religion" which opened Congress in November, 1891. http://www.cpjustice.org/stories/storyReader$333 Here is a brief report of a conference in 1998 about Rerum Novarum & Kuyper's speech. http://www.ncregister.com/site/article/catholic_and_protestant_sch olars_speculate_on_task_of_bringing_social_teach/ Here is a brief article by Mark Noll on Rerum Novarum and Kuyper. http://www.cpjustice.org/stories/storyReader$548 Since Kuyper's major contribution was on common grace/good, here is an article by Tim Keller on this. http://timothykeller.com/images/uploads/pdf/What_Is_Common_Grace.pdf
Pilgrim Progress
As always, all we need to consider is the words, commands and actual behavior of Christ. He also ran the risk of being called a Radical, Communist, Socialist and Anarchist. Guess what? He WAS. He changed the entire course of Religious and Spiritual thought when he said "feed my sheep." He didn't say "Join the AFA," did not picket against Human Rights, nor did he advocate demonizing or marginalizing anyone. He explicitly said that no man can judge another, in any context, in any way, shape or form. In short, he changed the course of history with his emphasis on Redemption. Redemption, in short, really means "put down those stones."