A Biblical Theology Of The Common Good -- By: George Van Pelt Campbell
Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 172:686 (Apr 2015)
Article: A Biblical Theology Of The Common Good
Author: George Van Pelt Campbell
BSac 172:686 (April-June 2015) p. 139
A Biblical Theology Of The Common Good
George Van Pelt Campbell is Associate Professor of Sociology and Religion, Grove City College, Grove City, Pennsylvania.
Abstract
Christian commitment to the common good has grounds in the creation of humans by God as his image. They are designed to work together as social beings to fill the earth and rule it for one another’s benefit and God’s glory. Because humans are social beings, human flourishing requires social conditions such as cooperation, respect for the rights of others, compliance with norms, and social order. This being so, redemption will ultimately entail a redeemed social order—God’s reign on earth—in which humans will fully flourish. In the meantime, Christians, by their character and actions, are to bear witness to the world about God’s kingdom, providing glimpses and foretastes of it.
The desirability of the “common good” is commonly assumed but is not commonly developed in detail.1 Inability to articulate a vision for the common good prevails Christian leaders and the Christian community in general.2 This article
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seeks to provide a new argument for commitment to the common good among Christians.3
Definition of the Common Good
The common good can be defined most basically as any good sought or shared by two or more people.4 Friendship is an example. Humans are social beings, as Aristotle noted,5 so the goods humans seek are fundamentally related to social conditions. Thus the common good is better defined as the full flourishing of everyone in the community, and the conditions which facilitate that flourishing are seen as promoting the common good.6 Ostensibly, the goal of all societies is to establish and maintain the social, legal, and political arrangements that will promote the common good. Understanding what those conditions are is the most basic theoretical topic of sociology.7 It is also a concern addressed by Christian Scripture.8
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The Social Nature Of Humans And The Common Good
The argument to be developed here can be summarized as...
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