A distinguished man of religion stood up on May 26th in one of London\u2019s most prestigious locations. He urged his listeners (who were mostly co-religionists, but also included great-and-good figures from many other faiths) to ponder some of the dilemmas of our times: for example, should society\u2019s future direction be left to the free interplay of goods and ideas, or should the state take the leading role in healing our collective wounds? The answer, he concluded, was both approaches were deeply flawed. Neither the market nor the state would save the Western world unless its citizens rediscovered a sense of the common good rooted in deep cultural memories.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s so unusual about any of that, you might ask. Isn\u2019t that the kind of stuff you would expect a religious leader to say? Actually, it is rather unusual for a Western champion of faith to strike that note in a public forum, and the interesting question is why.<\/p>\n
As it turns out, the religious leader in question featured in Erasmus quite recently, but his receipt of one of philanthropy\u2019s most renowned awards (the Templeton Prize, which acknowledges those who “affirm life\u2019s spiritual dimension”) seems a good enough reason to mention him again. He is Lord Jonathan Sacks, a former chief rabbi of Britain and the Commonwealth and prolific author, most recently on religion and violence.<\/p>\n