Together for the Common Good Podcast

In this time of profound change, it is vital to find ways of staying human - and to do so within a constructive story of spiritual and civic renewal. A society destabilised by the failure of the hyper-liberal philosophy of the past forty years now also faces the rapid advance of artificial intelligence and the likely displacement of jobs at scale. Serious questions lie before us: How can we restor...

In this time of deep change, it is vital to find ways of staying human—and to do so within a constructive story of spiritual and civic renewal. Everything seems to be unravelling, including what it means to care for each other and even how we understand life and death. Serious questions lie before us: How can we restore our common life? How can we stay human? In this episode, Useful Lives, Dan Hit...

In this time of deep change, it is vital to find ways of staying human—and to do so within a constructive story of spiritual and civic renewal. As we recognize the failure of the hyper-liberal philosophy of the past forty years, people are feeling the loss of agency and we are seeing increasingly widespread discontent. With concentrations of money and state power intensifying, the breakdown of tru...

In this time of deep change, it is vital to find ways of staying human—and to do so within a constructive story of spiritual and civic renewal. As we recognise the failure of the hyper-liberal philosophy of the past forty years, people are feeling the loss of agency and there a rising sense of discontent. With concentrations of money and state power intensifying, the rapid advance of AI, and the b...

In this time of deep change, it is vital to find ways of staying human, and to do so within a constructive story of spiritual and civic renewal. Politics is downstream of culture and so there is only so much governments can do - we are all called to play our part in building the common good. In this episode, Luke Bretherton helps the churches to recover the memory of the commons, the God-shaped sp...

In this time of seismic change and instability, many of us are finding the scale of injustice overwhelming. It can be inspiring to look to the Christian martyrs for justice whose lives were “written in blood” – extraordinary people whose stories of truth, justice and peace, in the face of indifference and opposition, offered witness to a hope-filled future of solidarity and fraternity. But what ar...

Christian social action has grown significantly in the UK over the last two decades. But too often well-intentioned charitable initiatives are disconnected from justice, can deepen dependency and can drift in a secular direction. In a time of profound social and political change and increasing inequality, Jon Kuhrt opens up an honest conversation about impact, power and authentic Christian witness...

Matt Petrusek demystifies the new secular ideologies, exploring their origins and features, offering a common good response rooted in the Catholic Social Thought tradition. He shows how this serves as an antidote to identity politics, providing us with not only a worldview shaped around the transcendent nature of the person, but also, in this moment of cultural confusion, an opportunity for evange...

Drawing on Catholic Social Teaching, Sr Helen Alford examines the causes of division from the perspectives of economy, anthropology, truth, freedom and natural law, and explores how the people of the church are called to respond. Sr Helen Alford is president of the Pontifical Academy for Social Sciences and Dean of the Faculty for Social Sciences at the Angelicum, Rome’s Pontifical University. An...

Drawing on Catholic Social Teaching, Alison Milbank explores the common good approach to the conflicting interests of the environmental crisis and social injustice, and how the local church can be a part of the solution. Alison Milbank is Professor of Theology and Literature at the University of Nottingham and has authored many books. She is Priest Vicar and Canon Theologian at Southwell Minster,...

Jon Cruddas explores why decent work must be the cornerstone of a politics of the common good and why work is fundamentally a spiritual activity through which people collaborate with God for the redemption of humanity. Jon Cruddas is the Labour MP for Dagenham and Rainham and author of The Dignity of Labour . Jon is an Honorary Professor at the Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues at the Unive...

Maurice Glasman addresses the nature of work and how it has changed, how corporations have gained power while workers have lost out. He explores how the framework of Catholic social thought can guide us towards a more just and stable settlement. Lord Glasman is an English political theorist, Labour life peer and Professor of Politics at St Mary’s University. He is author of Blue Labour: the Politi...

Adrian Pabst argues that Catholic Social Thought is the most coherent body of ideas for social renewal, a gift to the world. In practical, grounded terms, he sets out how this tradition not only conceptualises a more just economy anchored in the dignity of the person and of work, but also reconciles the estranged interests of capital and labour, finance and production. Adrian Pabst is Professor of...

Addressing the mission of the Church of England in light of Catholic Social Teaching, Malcolm Brown explores the Anglican legacy for the common good and asks how it might become a church  for  England. Malcolm Brown is the Director of Mission and Public Affairs for the Church of England, and Visiting Professor in Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Winchester. He is author of Angli...

Looking through the lens of Catholic Social Teaching and its focus on human flourishing, Edward Hadas examines the effects of modernity on the human being, and asks whether, in the modern world, we can truly be who we were created to be. Edward Hadas is a Fellow at Blackfriars Hall, Oxford and a freelance journalist. An expert in Catholic Social Teaching, he teaches and lectures in Oxford and else...

Maurice Glasman explores the forces undermining democracy and the importance of voluntary human association in defence of the sacred. Addressing reform of the polity through the lens of Catholic Social Thought's conception of political economy, he emphasises the civic inheritance of the vote, and its renewed significance in the abandoned places. Lord Glasman is an Englsh political theorist, Labour...

Jenny Sinclair is founder director of Together for the Common Good , a UK charity dedicated to spiritual and civic renewal. Drawing on Catholic social thought, T4CG helps people across the churches make sense of this time of seismic change and discern their unique vocation for the common good. Join our community on Substack: t4cg.substack.com Listen to our sister podcast, Leaving Egypt , where we...

In the introductory lecture exploring the purpose of the series, and in the context of seismic change, Jenny Sinclair outlines the tradition of Catholic Social Thought as a framework to read the signs of the times and as a guide towards a coherent gospel-rooted response. She explores notions of justice, the common good, the vocation of the church and how we are each called to take responsibility....

In this short opening episode, Ben Curran talks with Jenny Sinclair about her vision for the Lincoln Lecture Series, a series of nine lectures held in partnership with Lincoln Cathedral and CCLA. Jenny explains that Together for the Common Good is dedicated to spiritual and civic renewal and that the aim of this series is to show how the Christian tradition can be a blessing on public life and dis...