Alma and Joseph Gildenhorn Book Talk with Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks
About Morality:
With liberal democracy embattled, public discourse grown toxic, family life breaking down, and drug abuse and depression on the rise, many fear what the future holds.
In Morality, respected faith leader and public intellectual Jonathan Sacks traces today’s crisis to our loss of a strong, shared moral code and our elevation of self-interest over the common good. We have outsourced morality to the market and the state, but neither is capable of showing us how to live. Sacks leads readers from ancient Greece to the Enlightenment to the present day to show that there is no liberty without morality and no freedom without responsibility, arguing that we must all must play our part in rebuilding a common moral foundation.
A major work of moral philosophy, Morality is an inspiring vision of a world in which we can all find our place and face the future without fear.
About Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks:
Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks is an international religious leader, philosopher, and respected moral voice. The Chief Rabbi of the UK and Commonwealth from 1991 to 2013 and the recipient of the 2016 Templeton Prize, he is an award-winning author of over thirty books, including “Not in God’s Name”. His new book, Morality: Restoring the Common Good in Divided Times, was a bestseller in the UK and is published in North America on September 1, 2020. A frequent and sought-after contributor to radio, television and the international press, and a renowned public speaker, Rabbi Sacks has degrees from both Cambridge and Oxford universities and has been awarded 18 honorary degrees. He was knighted by HM The Queen in 2005 and took his seat in the House of Lords in October 2009.
About Reverend Dr. Serene Jones (Moderator):
A highly respected scholar and public intellectual, the Rev. Dr. Serene Jones is the 16th President of the historic Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York. The first woman to head the 182-year-old institution, Jones occupies the Johnston Family Chair for Religion and Democracy. She is a Past President of the American Academy of Religion, which annually hosts the world’s largest gathering of scholars of religion. Jones came to Union after seventeen years at Yale University, where she was the Titus Street Professor of Theology at the Divinity School, and Chair of the University’s Program in Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies. She is the author of several books including Trauma and Grace and, most recently, her memoir Call It Grace: Finding Meaning in a Fractured World. Jones, a popular public speaker, is sought by media to comment on major issues impacting society because of her deep grounding in theology, politics, women’s studies, economics, race studies, history, and ethics.