Common Good Collective

Reader

This Reader is an expression of Common Good Collective, a vision for an alternative way, rooted in the act of eliminating economic isolation, the significance of place, and the structure of belonging. Whether you come at this from a place of economics, social good, or faith, we hope these reflections help orient your day in fresh, provocative, courageous ways. And most importantly, we hope these lead you into the sharing of gifts in particular communities—into co-creating a common good.

We read hundreds of articles and select the best ones for you by sending them to your inbox on Thursday.

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Imagination: The Prophetic Act of Living an Alternative Narrative, Invitation, Reader, Structure Of Belonging Permalink

New App Explores Intersection of Art and Religion

Art can ask us powerful, open-ended questions. So can religion. Both urge us to look beyond the realities in front of us, and to explore the assumptions and experiences that frame how we see the world. They can free us from the constraints of what is, helping us imagine realities well beyond our own.

The Alight app features a wealth of images from around the globe, paired with reflections that encourage us to explore and question our own understanding in new (and potentially liberating) ways.

Alight app launches new remarkable conversations illuminating how art and religion
intersect in the 21st century
By Kings College London

The Centre for Arts & the Sacred at King’s (ASK) introduces a new feature to their Alight: Art and the Sacred app. The new feature called, Theology, Modernity, and the Visual Arts, is designed to offer a remarkable set of conversations between scholars about the place of religion in contemporary art.

The new feature brings together artists, theologians, art historians and curators who reflect on the challenging and illuminating ways that art and religion intersect in the 21st century. The discussions feature the likes of Sir Antony Gormley RA, Archbishop Rowan Williams, Rebecca Salter PRA, and more who explore what theology can learn from the insights and suggestions of modern and contemporary art.

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Leaving Egypt and Pharaoh, Reader, Structure Of Belonging, Wilderness: Sharing and Reorientation Permalink

How Does It Feel To Be a Problem?

Sometimes the work for liberation is militant or triumphant; other times it’s a quiet force that strives simply for compassionate understanding. W .E. B. Du Bois wrote this powerful essay to help us understand more deeply his suffering as an “American Negro” in white America. This isn’t an easy read, as it demands that we explore the difficult experiences of identity and race in our nation. By illuminating these painful realities, he invites us to grieve together the many ways in which our black siblings have been harmed–including by our thoughtless questions. Read (or listen) to this piece as an exercise in building understanding and compassion.

Strivings of the Negro People
By W. E. Burghardt Du Bois

Between me and the other world there is ever an unasked question: unasked by some through feelings of delicacy; by others through the difficulty of rightly framing it. All, nevertheless, flutter round it. They approach me in a half-hesitant sort of way, eye me curiously or compassionately, and then, instead of saying directly, How does it feel to be a problem? they say, I know an excellent colored man in my town; or I fought at Mechanicsville; or, Do not these Southern outrages make your blood boil? At these I smile, or am interested, or reduce the boiling to a simmer, as the occasion may require. To the real question, How does it feel to be a problem? I answer seldom a word.

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Invitation, Possibly: Freedom for A New Story, Reader, Structure Of Belonging Permalink

Living On

I’ve never seen an obituary quite like this one. WiLL Wise was a remarkable and accomplished human being, with an impressive resume. But the folks who loved him chose to remember him for his questions, not for his achievements. WiLL’s obituary invites us to explore three of his favorite questions and how our responses might liberate us to live like he did: with expansive love.

Living On:
An Obituary for WiLL Wise

Are you ready for your life to change?

WiLL asked this question to thousands of students on the first day he met them over the years. If your answer was “no”, he was happy to show you the door. Most people might ease into a question like that. WiLL’s shocking directness was one of his many gifts to the planet.

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Invitation, Reader, Structure Of Belonging Permalink

The Internal Work of Liberation

Thich Nhat Hanh knew it. Archbishop Desmond Tutu knew it. So did bell hooks. The three liberators we’ve lost this winter each knew that sustained social change demands liberation on the inside, not just the outside. This week, writer, musician, and friend Devin Bustin offers us pieces that are about that essential internal work.

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Invitation, Possibly: Freedom for A New Story, Reader, Structure Of Belonging Permalink

Dangerous Spirituality

“The burden of being black and the burden of being white is so heavy that it is rare in our society to experience oneself as a human being.” Those words from great theologian Howard Thurman were among those that inspired the life of on of the greatest American liberators, Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. Both men were guilty of having a dangerous spirituality, as described below by yet another great theologian and activist, Vincent Harding.

Dangerous Spirituality
By Vincent Harding

In their different and sometimes similar ways, Howard Thurman and Martin King represented a spirituality deeply, solidly based in one place, among one people, about which they had no doubts at all. Just as Jesus of Nazareth represented a spirituality based in one place, among one people, about whom he had no doubts at all. At the same moment, both King and Thurman reached out far, far beyond that ground and that base and saw no contradictions in being grounded and reaching out as part of one motion of spirit and life.

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