The Common Good

Our March 2021 issue of Pari Perspectives has as its theme ‘The Common Good,’ a concept that has been an important concern of moral and political philosophy since ancient times.

In 2004 the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace defined it as ‘the sum total of social conditions which allow people, either as groups or as individuals, to reach their fulfillment more fully and more easily.’ Each of the essays address community and the common good: Gavin Andersson tells us we how we should be organising for life rather than simply against inequity, injustice and power elites. A number of contributors feel that the COVID-19 crisis is mobilising creative energy and a great upsurge of true human solidarity. And finally, Wendell Berry tells us that ‘The only true and effective “operator’s manual for spaceship earth” is not a book that any human will ever write; it is hundreds of thousands of local cultures.’ In Issue 7, we salute communities—and the Common Good!