Whose Commons? Which Good? The Church and the Pursuit of the Common Good

In Carl F. H. Henry’s landmark work, The Uneasy Conscience of American Fundamentalism, he criticized Evangelicals (then “Fundamentalists”) for their isolationism, and their unwillingness to confidently confront the pressing social evils of our day from the theistic and redemptive standing of Christian theology. Over a half century later, Evangelicals either have failed to heed that warning, or still remain unable to answer the question adequately: What is the place of the Church in the Public Square? In this year’s Trinity Debate, Jay Richards and Jim Wallis will address this question of Christian social engagement through the subject of the Common Good. Specifically, each will present a proposal (and respond to the other) on the question, “What is the common good? And how should the Church and Christians pursue it?”

Jim Wallis

Jim Wallis is president and founder of Sojourners; he is also editor-in-chief of Sojourners magazine, which has a combined print and electronic media readership of more than a quarter million. A New York Times bestselling author, public theologian, speaker, and international commentator on ethics and public life. He recently served on the White House Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships and currently serves as the vice chair of the Global Agenda Council on Values of the World Economic Forum. He is also the author of a dozen books, the most recent Rediscovering Values: A Guide for Economic and Moral Recovery; The Great Awakening:Reviving Faith & Politics in a Post-Religious Right America; and God’s Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn’t Get It.

Jay Richards

Jay Richards, Ph.D., is a Senior Fellow of the Discovery Institute where he directs the Center on Wealth, Poverty and Morality, and is a Visiting Scholar at the Institute for Faith, Work & Economics. Most recently he is the co-author with James Robison of the best-selling Indivisible: Restoring Faith, Family, and Freedom Before It’s Too Late. In addition to writing many academic articles, books, and popular essays on a wide variety of subjects, he recently edited the new award winning anthology, God & Evolution: Protestants, Catholics and Jews Explore Darwin’s Challenge to Faith . His previous book was Money, Greed, and God: Why Capitalism Is the Solution and Not the Problem (HarperOne, May 2009), for which he received a Templeton Enterprise Award in 2010.