To Heal a Fractured World: The Ethics of Responsibility

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Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, Feb 6, 2007 - Religion - 352 pages
One of the most respected religious thinkers of our time makes an impassioned plea for the return of religion to its true purpose—as a partnership with God in the work of ethical and moral living.

What are our duties to others, to society, and to humanity? How do we live a meaningful life in an age of global uncertainty and instability? In To Heal a Fractured World, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks offers answers to these questions by looking at the ethics of responsibility. In his signature plainspoken, accessible style, Rabbi Sacks shares with us traditional interpretations of the Bible, Jewish law, and theology, as well as the works of philosophers and ethicists from other cultures, to examine what constitutes morality and moral behavior. “We are here to make a difference,” he writes, “a day at a time, an act at a time, for as long as it takes to make the world a place of justice and compassion.” He argues that in today’s religious and political climate, it is more important than ever to return to the essential understanding that “it is by our deeds that we express our faith and make it real in the lives of others and the world.”

To Heal a Fractured World—inspirational and instructive, timely and timeless—will resonate with people of all faiths.
 

Contents

Faith as Protest
17
Charity as Justice
30
Love as Deed
44
Sanctifying the Name
57
Mending the World
71
Like a Single Soul
84
The Kindness of Strangers
97
Responsibility for Society
113
The Monotheistic Imagination
175
The Faith of God
189
Redeeming Evil
202
Transforming Suffering
215
The Chaos Theory of Virtue
226
The Kind of Person We Are
238
Who Am I?
252
On Dreams and Responsibilities
264

The Birth of Responsibility
133
Divine Initiative Human Initiative
148
The Holy and the Good
162

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About the author (2007)

Jonathan Sacks has been Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of Great Britain and the Commonwealth since 1991 and has received honorary degrees from universities around the world. He is the award-winning author of a dozen previous books, writes frequently for The Times (London) and other periodicals, and is heard regularly on the BBC. Rabbi Sacks was knighted in 2005. He lives in London.

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