Morality : Restoring the Common Good in Divided Times by Jonathan Sacks
Hodder & Stoughton, 2020 365 pages £8 ISBN 978 1 473 617 339
Also available on Kindle and as an Audiobook.
Reading this book has been a rich and rewarding experience, both instructive and inspiring.
If ever there was a case for seeing the world as it has developed, as it is now in all its drab
negativeness, this is it.
But the writer can never be completely negative, his deep Jewish faith frequently surfaces to give
sure grounds for confidence and optimism.
The case for morality as an essential for society springs primarily from his commitment to and
belief in the Jewish revelation of a God who cares for the world he created, despite the carefree
attitude of many who regard morality either as easily set aside or as a flexible commodity to be
called upon when expedient.
‘Historically’, he says, ‘religion has been the most authoritative and generative moral voice.’ (p 286)
Morality is born, according to the author, when I focus on you not me. (p 59) This is the basic thrust of Jonathan Sacks’ writing here.
The current obsession with the individual as opposed to the individual as a member of the
community is where the zeitgeist has got it wrong. He writes, ‘Individualism has been our substitute for morality since the 1960s. The ‘I’ takes precedence over the ‘We’. (p 100)
In over 300 pages, divided into 5 sections, with 18 pages of notes and 8 pages of suggested further reading, the exploration takes us from ancient Greece through the Reformation and the
Enlightenment to our own time. In the West, we are living through a period of cultural climate
change in which morality has been removed from its Judeo-Christian roots.
The author, former Chief Rabbi for more than 20 years, presents an incisive critique of our
contemporary condition with insight and erudition.
He offers an inspiring vision of a world with confident optimism.
The book, completed just before he died in 2020, stands as the magnum opus of a brilliant thinker
and persuasive communicator.
There is more of his work to be found in the Jonathan Sacks website.