Jonathan Sacks’ Morality Reading Group

In an era of intense polarization and fractured public discourse, how do we rebuild a shared sense of the common good while preserving the dignity of difference within a pluralistic society?

In his prescient book Morality: Restoring the Common Good in Divided Times, Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks argues that Western society has undergone a dangerous shift from a “We” culture to an “I” culture. A shared moral framework has gradually been replaced by a hollow hyper-individualism, contributing to both political dysfunction and growing social isolation.

Sacks argues that we have increasingly and dangerously outsourced our civic responsibilities to the market and the state, weakening the institutions of family, community, and civil society that historically sustained moral life. When human relationships become reduced to economic transactions, society begins to lose the moral language needed to address its deepest challenges, and we risk forgetting that society is ultimately the home we build together.

Join our reading group to explore Sacks’ robust argument chapter by chapter, discussing how a renewed culture of mutual obligation, civic responsibility, and shared moral purpose might be able to heal a fractured world, and perhaps even recover something like the politics of hope in a divided age.

In addition to discussing the philosophical and historical themes of the book, the group will also explore emerging neuroscience perspectives on cooperation, attachment, and social regulation. Modern research increasingly suggests that human flourishing depends on stable social bonds and shared norms—ideas that resonate strongly with Sacks’ vision of something like the great partnership between individual freedom and collective responsibility.

This is a reading-oriented group. Participants are expected to obtain the book and read the assigned chapters in advance so that meetings can focus on discussion and interpretation as we try, together, to think again in future tense.

For the first meeting read the introduction and we will orient the topic.