‘In Search of The Common Good,’ with Jake Meador

Jake Meador returns to the show to discuss his book 'In Search of the Common Good.'

Jake Meador

How are Christians able to fulfill the Law of Love and be good neighbors in a fragmented age? Jake Meador contributes to answering this question in, “In Search of The Common Good: Christian Fidelity in a Fractured World.” Jake joins Matt and Derek to discuss his recent book and untangle some of the modern presuppositions that have been found a home in the church today.

Resources mentioned:

Book: “In Search of The Common Good: Christian Fidelity in a Fractured World” by Jake Meador

Book: “Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis,” by J.D. Vance

Book: “The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation” by Rod Dreher

Article: “Global Economies, Immigration, and Precarious Places” by Matthew Petersen

Book: “Resurrection and Moral Order: An Outline for Evangelical Ethics” by Oliver O’Donovan

Book: “The Ways Of Judgment: The Bampton Lectures,” by Oliver O’Donovan

Timestamps

0:00
Intro + what caused Jake to write this book, and what makes his angle different than other authors
9:23
How Jake’s approach is distinctly “Reformed,” and how these presuppositions shape his argument and critique of the current state of the church
18:20
The boundaries of the “common good”
24:00
If the virtue of America is that it as a nation is a voluntary community, what are the issues we face in letting this principle go? Will it result in a kind of ethnic nationalism?
29:09
What would Jake say to a hypothetical democratic-socialist who thinks his propositions are insufficient?
36:40
Does the “common good” infer one most vote for certain political views?
42:08
The book’s immediate and practical elements concerning vocation
49:00
Tim Keller’s endorsement + conclusion

Follow Derek, Andrew, and Alastair for more tweet-sized brilliance. Thanks to Caleb Wait for keeping us organized. Special thanks to Tim Motte for sound editing. And thanks to The Joy Eternal for lending us their music, which everybody should download out of gratitude for their kindness.

Church Culture Political Theology
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