• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • About
    • About Current
    • Masthead
  • Podcasts
  • Support

common good

I’m not going to pay for that guy’s kid to be educated

John Fea   |  July 12, 2022

What is the common good? Should a person or couple with no children have to pay taxes to support public education? It seems to have to come this. Here is Michael Tomasky, editor of The New Republic: The Times’ Dan Barry reported on...

Catholic social teaching as an alternative to neoliberalism

John Fea   |  January 5, 2022

Anthony Annett of Fordham University articulates the differences between neoliberalism and Catholic social teaching. Here are some of those differences: Neoliberalism defines human motivation in terms of self-interest. Catholic social teaching defines human motivation in terms of “solidarity, reciprocity, and...

Tocqueville said that “selfishness originates in blind instinct: individualism proceeds from erroneous judgment.” Both are at work in our mask wars.

John Fea   |  August 25, 2021

What is happening to America? The Donald Trump presidency is primarily responsible this mess. He lifted the veil of civility and empowered the kind of people you see and hear about in the video I posted below. If the republic...

Do Americans still believe in the common good?

John Fea   |  August 23, 2021

It’s a fair question. Here is Kentucky-based writer Silas House at The Atlantic: Refusing to sacrifice for the common good is an American problem, not just a Kentucky one; opposition to masking and vaccination is happening in such disparate places...

Practice virtue. Get vaccinated

John Fea   |  August 1, 2021

On Wednesday I wrote a piece at Current titled, “Love Your Neighbor. Get Vaccinated.” I discussed the resistance to vaccines in the evangelical community and focused a significant portion of the piece on talk radio show host and author Eric...

“Without a commons, there is no common good”: What religion can teach the secular Left.

John Fea   |  May 26, 2021

Over at Commonweal, David Albertson and Jason Blakeley argue that if the Left wants to succeed, they must address “the crisis of civic belonging.” Here is a taste: Much of the Left today is focused on proposing policies and dismantling structures....

“For Love of Neighbor: Politics for the Common Good”

John Fea   |  October 7, 2020

Check out the trailer for this new film from the American Enterprise Institute: It follows the ways that Justin Giboney, Sarah Imboden, and Tim Scott are trying to bring their faith to bear on public life. I am especially happy...

Michelle Obama’s DNC convention speech was deeply Christian

John Fea   |  August 18, 2020

After the first night of the Democratic National Convention I tuned into Fox News. Laura Ingraham was on the air and, as might be expected, she was trashing the convention. I stopped watching after about forty minutes of analysis from...

What COVID-19 exposed about the United States

John Fea   |  August 4, 2020

All of these points come from Ed Yong’s recent piece at The Atlantic: “How the Pandemic Defeated America.” We under-fund public health. Our health-care system is weak. Too much of what we do spend on healthcare is wasted. We have not...

Conservative Culture Warriors Are Trying Figure Out How to Operate in our Current Moment

John Fea   |  March 19, 2020

What do conservative, pro-Trump media pundits do when faced with a crisis that calls them to use their platforms to serve the common good? What happens when one’s entire brand is built on disparaging enemies? In a time of public...

“Promote the General Welfare”

John Fea   |  January 3, 2020

We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity,...

Should Religious Liberty Be “The Most Important Public Issue?”

John Fea   |  October 18, 2019

Some say it should be, but Baylor University English professor Alan Jacobs is not so sure.  Here is a taste of his recent blog post: Stretch your mind and imagine a POTUS who supports religious liberty but who also pursues...

New Book: *Catholics and Evangelicals for the Common Good*

John Fea   |  November 20, 2018

I just received this in the mail today: It was an honor to be part of the conversations that led to this collection....

Historian: A Lack of Trust in Social Institutions, Social Structures, and Each Other Leads to More Lethal Violence

John Fea   |  October 21, 2017

Randolph Roth teaches history and sociology at The Ohio State University.  Over at the Charleston (WV) Gazette-Mail (originally published at The Washington Post), he offers a glimpse of his recent research on social trust and violence. Here is a taste: When we...

The Vocation of the Business Leader

John Fea   |  August 8, 2016

Is Donald Trump a successful businessman?  Not according to Catholic social teaching. As Anthony Arnett notes at dotCommonweal, the Vatican’s Vocation of the Business Leader requires that all business activity be oriented toward the common good.  Pope Francis has called business...

The President of the American Enterprise Institute: Pope Francis Wants Your Soul!

John Fea   |  October 8, 2015

One might expect the president of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) to critique the message that Pope Francis delivered last month during his visit to the United States.  The AEI, after all, is in the business of promoting free enterprise...

Primary Sidebar

Patron Access

Way of Improvement blog banner

Episode 51: “The Politics of Tinky Winky”

January 27, 2023 By John Fea

He was Florida’s professor of the year in 2006. Today his courses would be illegal.

January 27, 2023 By John Fea

Zakaria: The nation’s policy on classified documents and “secrecy” is “out-of-control”

January 27, 2023 By John Fea

Teaching John Henry Newman’s “What is a University”

January 27, 2023 By John Fea

What is popular this week at Current?

January 27, 2023 By John Fea

More Blog Posts

Subscribe via Email



Please wait...
Please enter all required fields Click to hide
Correct invalid entries Click to hide

Footer

Contact Forms

General Inquiries
Pitch Us

Search

Subscribe via Email



Please wait...
Please enter all required fields Click to hide
Correct invalid entries Click to hide
Subscribe via Email


Please wait...
Please enter all required fields Click to hide
Correct invalid entries Click to hide