Together for the Common Good

By Nicholas Sagovsky

What does the term ‘common good’ means to thinkers of different, primarily – but not exclusively – Christian traditions. This book will explore how the term is used both practically and theoretically.

• Language: English
• Publisher: SCM Press
• Release date: Mar 9, 2015
• ISBN: 9780334053347

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Together for the Common Good: Towards a National Conversation

Together for the Common Good: Towards a National Conversation

Edited by

Peter McGrail and Nicholas Sagovsky

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© The editors and contributors 2015

Published in 2015 by SCM Press

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Scripture quotations from the English Standard Version, Anglicized Edition © Collins, London, 2003.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

978 0 334 05324 8

Typeset by Regent Typesetting, London

Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon

Contents

Acknowledgements

Contributors

Foreword – Rabbi Baroness Julia Neuberger DBE

Introduction – Peter McGrail and Nicholas Sagovsky

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. Evangelicalism 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 Economics, Catholic Social Teaching and the Common Good – Clifford Longley

Select Bibliography

Acknowledgements

The editors of this volume are both members of the steering group of the Together for the Common Good Project (http://togetherforthecommongood.co.uk/). While not directly an activity of the project, this book would not have been written without the impetus provided by T4CG and the ongoing support of the steering group. The views expressed by the editors and the contributors do, nevertheless, remain entirely their own.

We must, first, acknowledge the consistent and generous support provided by Hymns Ancient & Modern and SCM Press for the T4CG Project and, specifically, for this book. We wish especially to thank Natalie Watson, Senior Commissioning Editor, for her encouragement and patience as we pursued our fascinating conversation with the contributors while keeping her waiting for action.

We also wish to thank CCLA Investment Management Ltd, and in particular Andrew Robinson, for hosting three study days at their extremely congenial office in the City of London. They provided an invaluable space in which the contributors to this volume could share ideas. It was remarkable that the things we were talking about related so closely to the ethical concerns of CCLA. Thank you, Andrew, for participating so fully in our discussions, making sure they were earthed in the realities of the financial and banking world which were all around us as we talked – just five minutes’ walk from St Paul’s Cathedral.

Finally, we must thank Liverpool Hope University, which also generously supported our meetings from their research budget.

Peter McGrail

Nicholas Sagovsky

Contributors

Philip Booth is Editorial and Programme Director of the Institute of Economic Affairs and Professor of Insurance and Risk Management at Cass Business School, City University, London. He is a fellow of the Institute of Actuaries and of the Royal Statistical Society. His publications include Catholic Social Teaching and the Market Economy (2nd edn, 2014, as editor and co-author), Catholic Education in the West: Roots, Reality, and Revival (2013, as co-author) and Christian Perspectives on the Financial Crash (2010, as editor). Philip was a school governor of a Catholic school for around 20 years.

Andrew Bradstock was during 2009–13 Howard Paterson Professor of Theology and Public Issues at the University of Otago, New Zealand. He is currently Secretary for Church and Society with the United Reformed Church and a member of the Joint Public Issues Team of the Baptist, Methodist and United Reformed Churches. He is a visiting professor at the University of Winchester and a member of the steering group of Together for the Common Good.

Malcolm Brown is Director of Mission and Public Affairs for the Archbishops’ Council of the Church of England. He has been a parish priest and an industrial chaplain and has taught Christian Ethics and Practical Theology in a number of universities. He was Executive Secretary of the William Temple Foundation in Manchester from 1991–2000. He is the author of Tensions in Christian Ethics (SPCK, 2010) and editor of Anglican Social Theology (Church House Publishing, 2014).

Samuel Burgess is currently completing his DPhil at the University of Oxford. His thesis offers a theological defence of Burkean conservatism and argues for the continued relevance of Burke’s thought to contemporary political questions. He was brought up in Bath and educated at Monkton Combe School before studying as an undergraduate at Durham and as an MPhil student at Cambridge.

Jonathan Chaplin is Director of the Kirby Laing Institute for Christian Ethics, Cambridge, a member of the Divinity Faculty of Cambridge University and Senior Fellow of Cardus, a Canadian Christian think-tank. He is a consultant researcher for the UK think-tank Theos and has written for Guardian CiF Belief. He has taught political theory and political theology in the UK, Canada and the Netherlands.

Maurice Glasman (Lord Glasman) is an English academic, social thinker and Labour life peer in the House of Lords. He is best known as the originator of Blue Labour, a term he coined in 2009. His research interests focus on the relationship between citizenship and faith and the limits of the state and the market. Author of Unnecessary Suffering (1996), he worked for ten years with London Citizens and through this developed an expertise in community organizing. He has a long-standing interest in Catholic Social Thought and was a speaker at the Together for the Common Good Conference in Liverpool.

Brian Griffiths (Lord Griffiths of Fforestfach) is a member of the boards of Goldman Sachs International and Goldman Sachs International Bank. He taught at the London School of Economics before becoming Professor of Banking and International Finance at the City University and Dean of the City University Business School. He was a director of the Bank of England from 1983–5. He left the Bank of England early to serve at 10 Downing Street as head of the Prime Minister’s Policy Unit from 1985–1990. As special advisor to Margaret Thatcher, he was responsible for domestic policy-making and was a chief architect of the government’s privatization and deregulation programmes. He is a member of the House of Lords Select Committee on Economic Affairs. Lord Griffiths was chairman of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Lambeth Fund and is chairman of Christian Responsibility in Public Affairs. He has written and lectured extensively on economic issues and the relationship of the Christian faith to economies and business and has published various books on monetary policy and Christian ethics.

Tehmina Kazi, Director of British Muslims for Secular Democracy since May 2009 and Executive Producer of the documentary film Hidden Heart, was also a freelance consultant for English PEN’s ‘Faith and Free Speech in Schools’ project. She is a trustee of Hope Not Hate, an advisory board member of the Measuring Anti-Muslim Attacks project, an Inclusive Mosque Initiative committee member, and was a judge for the Accord Coalition’s Inclusive Schools Award, 2014. She was named as one of the BBC’s 100 Women in October 2013 and 2014 and held the Eric Lane Fellowship at Clare College, Cambridge in January–March 2014. She is a Centenary Young Fellow of the RSA. 

Clifford Longley is the author of Just Money: How Catholic Social Teaching can Redeem Capitalism published by the think-tank Theos and available at www.theosthinktank.co.uk, where a printed version can also be ordered. He formerly wrote about religious affairs for The Times and the Daily Telegraph and is now editorial consultant, leader writer and columnist at The Tablet, the international Catholic weekly. He has written a number of books and contributed regularly to the BBC Radio 4’s Thought for the Day and Moral Maze programmes. He was the principal author of The Common Good and the Catholic Church’s Social Teaching published by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales in 1996. He was awarded a Lambeth Master of Letters in 2012.

Peter McGrail is a priest of Liverpool Roman Catholic Archdiocese and Associate Professor of Catholic Studies at Liverpool Hope University, where he is also head of the Department of Theology, Philosophy and Religious Studies. He has had several years’ parish experience, and was director of the Department for Pastoral Formation (1996–2003) in Liverpool Archdiocese. He is the author of two books exploring the gaps between formal liturgy and life. He is a member of the Liturgy Committee of the Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales and chair of its Liturgical Formation subcommittee. He is the Roman Catholic observer on the Liturgical Commission of the Church of England. He is a member of the steering group of Together for the Common Good.

Esther D. Reed is Associate Professor in Theology and Religion at the University of Exeter, where she is also Director of the Network for Religion in Public Life. Her current research delves into questions of theology and international law, narrative theology in religious education and the theology of work. She has most recently published Theology for International Law (2013). She was also a co-author of the Christian Aid Report, Tax for the Common Good: A Study of Tax and Morality (October 2014).

Patrick Riordan SJ has taught political philosophy at Heythrop College, University of London, since 2002, having formerly worked at the Milltown Institute of Theology and Philosophy in Dublin. His current research interests are religion in public life, the philosophy of justice and the common good. His latest book, Global Ethics and Global Common Goods, is published by Bloomsbury. Other publications include A Grammar of the Common Good: Speaking of Globalization (2008) and Philosophical Perspectives on People Power (2001). He has also published articles on human dignity, natural law, business ethics and the just war theory in the context of terrorism.

Anna Rowlands is Lecturer in Contemporary Catholic Studies and Deputy Director of the Centre for Catholic Studies in the Department of Theology and Religion at Durham University. As a theologian she has worked closely with CAFOD, the Citizens Organising Foundation and the Caritas Social Action Network. She is founding Chair of a new UK network for academics and practitioners involved in the development of Catholic Social Thought and practice.

Nicholas Sagovsky holds professorial posts in theology at two ecumenical universities: Liverpool Hope and Roehampton. An Anglican, he has been a member of the Anglican Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC) since 1992. In 2008, he published a study entitled Christian Tradition and the Practice of Justice. He is on the steering group of Together for the Common Good.

Jon E. Wilson is a historian at King’s College London, where his research and teaching focuses on politics and government in South Asia and Britain. His book on British power in India, India Conquered. Britain’s Raj and the Chaos of Empire, will be published by Simon and Schuster in 2016. He is also a Labour activist and writes a weekly column for labourlist.net.

Foreword

As a young student rabbi in the 1970s, just over a year into my rabbinical studies, I was sent to Liverpool as student rabbi to its then Liberal (now Reform) congregation. It was a steep learning curve for someone raised in a politically left-wing but undeniably socially cosy northwest London Jewish home. It was before the riots of 1981. Tensions in the city were palpable. I loved Liverpool then and still do, with its civic pride and splendour, but also its sense of itself. It was a city fallen on hard times, with ethnic and sectarian tensions and real concern, often clumsily articulated if at all, about its future, and especially the future of its young. Into that somewhat fissile arena the two bishops, David Sheppard and (Archbishop) Derek Worlock, arrived in 1975 and 1976 respectively. They both, in different ways, felt a mission to work with the poor. They became friends, colleagues, fellow campaigners, but above all they became the leaders of a city in turmoil and distress, and through their efforts, across divides, they helped heal the wounds and inspired others to root out poverty, ethnic tensions, sectarianism and lack of aspiration. This volume is rooted in their lives and hopes, their work and inspiration. Their vision of the common good informs the writing of all the contributors, and speaks to us all, in all our traditions.

These days, when you walk from one cathedral to the other down the aptly named Hope Street, you can sense hope in the air, something brought by these two great men, gifted and inspired spiritual leaders, and passed on to thousands upon thousands of others. The memorial to David Sheppard, whose ashes are buried in ‘his’ cathedral, quotes Jeremiah 29.7: ‘Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you … and pray to the Lord on its behalf.’ The full text is somewhat different:

Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.

Jeremiah was not necessarily popular with the exiles for encouraging the peaceful activities of garden planting and house building: ‘By the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept,’ sings the Psalmist in Psalm 137. Weeping, gnashing of teeth, maybe rioting were nearer the mark, rather than the peaceful construction of houses (in an area of many slums and poorly maintained, though once magnificent houses) and planting of gardens in an area of few green spaces and even fewer safe green spaces. The two bishops were inspired by Jeremiah and encouraged activities that led to stability and a sense of ownership and pride in the area, while campaigning against the injustices and horrors of widespread unemployment, poor access to legal remedies, and a life of deprivation in an area of little hope.

Both believed in practical Christianity and, as a Jew from my practical tradition, I can only applaud them, since practical help was and is still needed, as well as healing sectarian divides. They led worship together publicly in a sectarian city. The theological divides were de minimis compared with the practical virtues of working, praying, fundraising and campaigning for the common good. They appeared together in pubs and on street corners. They appealed for calm, and together they promised to help rebuild and recreate with hope and opportunity. And they brought healing.

These fascinating chapters address what that means. They are the product of meetings and discussion, practical action and prayer. And they seek to restate the concept of the common good as just as relevant to us now as it was in Sheppard and Worlock’s Liverpool. And there is much of great importance to learn from them. Yet we now need its contributors to work on Volume 2, with an account through faith eyes of the practical application of this idea. Liverpool is a happier, more thriving place than it was in the 1970s and 80s, in no small measure thanks to the work and sheer massive presence of Liverpool Hope University and the other Liverpool universities. But what will the students do when they are finished? How much can religious leaders, and indeed the tenets of faith more widely, contribute in reducing widespread youth unemployment, growing health inequalities, growing financial inequalities and the growing presence of food banks in the city and every city? My tradition is a uniquely practical one. As this volume debates the issues, I long for Volume 2 to focus on the practical role of religious organizations in righting some of these wrongs? Could it cite that great Jewish teacher Maimonides (1135–1204) in his description of charity as going from the lowest order of giving inadequate amounts, grumpily, to the highest of giving in such a way that the recipient never needs to ask for charity again? Can the faith communities focus on that concept of that charity, not the caritas of Christian understanding but the tzedakah, the social justice of Judaism, in evening up and resetting the balance? And can the faiths examine the duty of older, more senior people in supporting and encouraging the young? 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. Now we need Volume 2 to complete the story, with a practical toolkit, in the wake of David Sheppard and Derek Worlock, in whose memory this volume was put together, and who still have so many lessons for us all.

Rabbi Baroness Julia Neuberger DBE

Introduction

This book is the product of many conversations about the common good. It springs from the ministry of the Anglican Bishop David Sheppard and the Roman Catholic Archbishop Derek Worlock, working ‘together for the common good’ in Liverpool from the mid-1970s to the death of Worlock in 1996. In 2013, a conference was held at Liverpool Hope University, of which they were, in effect, joint founders, to celebrate their legacy and to discern how their hugely varied agenda can inspire those with similar hopes and concerns today. In that same year, Jorge Bergoglio had been elected as Pope (taking the name of Francis) and Justin Welby had been enthroned as Archbishop of Canterbury. Each brought to the life of the Church a new agenda (including a new commitment to the needs of the poor, especially migrants, and a recognition, after the financial crisis of 2007–08, of the need in all our communities for banks that can be trusted). Both speak frequently about reconciliation and the common good.

The conference left two key questions: ‘What is the common good?’ and ‘How can we work for it together?’ Both questions have been pursued by the steering group of the Together for the Common Good project, the participants at the conference, those, including parliamentarians, who have joined in ‘common good’ conversations, and the contributors to this book. Before beginning to write, most of the contributors were able to meet for three specially convened study days. The chapters we have produced reflect the discussion both at the conference and on the study days, but they are not a record of the conference, nor have the contributors read them formally to one another. They are the product of, and are intended to contribute to, a continuing conversation.

A word, first, about ‘conversation’: Karl Marx famously said, ‘The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it.’¹ The chapters here represent various attempts, from a UK perspective, to interpret the world in which we currently live. In doing so, they draw on the riches of an interpretative tradition that goes back to the Greeks (Aristotle) and incorporates wisdom from the Scriptures of Jews, Christians and Muslims. This is, however, not intended to be an exercise in armchair interpretation. The word ‘conversation’ (meaning an exchange of views) has the same root as the verb to ‘convert’, to ‘turn’. ‘Turning’ is what the Jewish Scriptures again and again call for from a people that has lost its way in a moral wilderness. ‘See–judge–act’ was the motto chosen by Cardinal Cardijn for the Young Christian Workers and then adopted more widely throughout the Catholic Church. If we accept the imperative of action, then we must look for the action to be based both on a clear-eyed, undeceived recognition of the reality by which we are confronted (something for which free media are vital), and on wise judgement about a good way forward (something for which democratic participation based on inclusive education is also essential). To say this is to say something about the quality of ‘conversation’ which must take place before there can be well-judged action which serves the common good. Conversation of this quality must be patient, attentive, well-informed and robust. It must be rooted in the needs and experience of local communities. It must be rooted in action and lead to action. Conversation of this quality is intended to change the world, in a transformative way to serve the common good.

Sheppard and Worlock

Sheppard and Worlock might not have put it quite like this. They tended to use other language in their published works, but their concerns were similar. They wanted change. They were both intelligent, educated, and gifted Christian leaders who set out to serve the people of Liverpool at what proved to be a time of crisis. This is why there is so much to be learned from studying the way they worked: understanding what they were able to achieve and acknowledging what they could not achieve.

The city to which they came was at a low point, as were other parts of Merseyside. Long-term economic problems stemmed primarily from the historic role of the port. Its success in the nineteenth century made Liverpool an imperial city; by the end of the twentieth its decline left major economic, political and social problems. The port had dominated the labour market, with long-term effects, because jobs were mainly semi- and unskilled, casual, irregular and poorly paid. Manufacturing never developed substantially so there was no core of skilled workers, which reduced the city’s capacity to attract newer, higher-technology industries. The pattern of ownership was also a factor: it was a branch plant economy where much of the ownership and control was in the hands of a small number of largely absentee employers.

There was a history of sectarian tension between Catholics and Protestants, which had its roots in the only partial assimilation of the Irish Catholic immigrant community. Across the twentieth century, on the other hand, the city experienced a persistent loss of population: for a long period, on average, 10,000 people per year left the city. It was often the younger and more skilled who left to search for economic opportunities elsewhere. There was thus a growing imbalance between the large city infrastructure and a declining population base. Unemployment was consistently 50 per cent higher than the national average. The combination of selective migration and the level of worklessness clearly contributed to social exclusion, with high numbers living in poverty and suffering the attendant problems. There were notably vulnerable groups, including Liverpool’s black community. Many black people were from families who had been in the city over several generations but the long-standing position of ethnic minorities had not increased their ability to enter the economic and social mainstream of the city. Their unemployment rate was disproportionately high and they were concentrated in a specific area of the city with very poor housing conditions.²

Local political forces also affected the city’s capacity to respond to its problems. The 1970s and early 1980s saw a succession of minority and coalition administrations, so that while the council was the city’s largest employer, the councillors could not give a clear political or strategic lead. By the time the Labour Party took majority control in 1983, it was dominated in the city by the Militant Tendency, which clashed dramatically with the Conservative-controlled national government about the level of financial resources being provided for services and especially the public housing programme. This confrontation attracted national headlines over a number of years, aggravating the city’s existing structural social and economic problems, dragging down Liverpool’s reputation and deterring external investors. This was the context in which Sheppard and Worlock had to work out their ministry.

David was the first to be appointed to Liverpool, in 1975. An avowed evangelical, Anglican Christian, he had captained England at cricket and developed his leadership skills further at the Mayflower Family Centre in London’s Docklands. He then succeeded the probing New Testament scholar, John Robinson, as Bishop of Woolwich. David’s questions were not so much about how to understand the Christian gospel as about how to communicate it in and through appropriate social action. His aspirations for urban renewal had been evident since the publication of Built as a City in 1974.³ In 1983, his Liverpool experience, which was rooted in the life of the city’s diverse and often struggling communities, was reflected in his book Bias to the Poor.⁴

Derek was appointed Archbishop of Liverpool in 1976. The frequently quoted story that he came with a specific brief from Pope Paul VI ‘to work with the poor and unemployed, and to prevent Liverpool becoming another Belfast’⁵ may well be apocryphal, but it appropriately summarizes his personal sense of mission. For 20 years, he had served as secretary to successive Cardinal Archbishops of Westminster before himself becoming a bishop, late in 1965, in Portsmouth. He was deeply influenced by the Second Vatican Council (1962–5), attending every session, contributing to the drafting of the Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity (Apostolicam actuositatem, 1965) and to the schema that eventually became the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World (Gaudium et spes, 1965). He was the first new English diocesan bishop to be ordained after the closure of Vatican II, and for 11 years sought faithfully to implement its teaching. When he moved north to Liverpool, he was regarded as a post-Conciliar progressive, and also as