Morality cover art

Morality

Restoring the Common Good in Divided Times

Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for £0.00
£8.99/mo thereafter. Renews automatically. Terms apply. Offer ends 31 July 2025 at 23:59 GMT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.

Morality

By: Jonathan Sacks
Narrated by: Jonathan Sacks
Try for £0.00

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Offer ends 31 July 2025 23:59 GMT. Cancel monthly.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

Tie-in to his Radio 4 series, thought leader Jonathan Sacks on how we can build a strong collective morality for the modern era.

In today's world of cultural climate change, argues Jonathan Sacks, we have outsourced morality to the markets on the one hand and to government on the other. If the market rewards it, it must be OK - unless the law says not to.

Yet while the markets have brought wealth to many and the state has done much to contain the worst excesses of inequality, neither is capable of bearing the moral weight of showing us how to live.

On the one hand, traditional values no longer hold, yet recent political swings show that modern ideals of tolerance have left many feeling rudderless and adrift. In this environment we see things fall apart in unexpected ways - toxic public discourse that makes true societal progress almost unattainable; the rise of religious extremism on the one hand and of aggressive atheism on the other; a drive for respect of all that establishes 'safe space' only where true debate is off limits.

How can we build - or rebuild - a collective culture that is able to both respect difference and draw us together to work for the common good? Talking to key modern influences, thinkers and drawing inspiration from the Bible and the historical experience of the Jewish people, Sacks argues that there are eight key factors in establishing, maintaining and passing on resilient moral values within a broad group, among them attitudes of lifelong learning and of thanksgiving, the importance of family life and community and a culture of positive argument in place of destructive conflict.

Combining his passionate belief in a positive way forward with a careful weighing of the realities and challenges of the position in which we find ourselves, Jonathan Sacks sets out a clear picture of a world in which we can all find our place and build a future worth working for.

Awarded Book of the Year 2020 in the National Jewish Book Awards.

©2018 Jonathan Sacks (P)2018 Hodder & Stoughton Limited
Ethics & Morality Philosophy Religious Studies Morality Inspiring Thought-Provoking Socialism Capitalism

Listeners also enjoyed...

Vexed cover art
Israel cover art
Rebbe cover art
10 Books Every Conservative Must Read cover art
The Righteous Mind cover art
Nicomachean Ethics and Eudemian Ethics cover art
Cynical Theories cover art
The Magna Carta of Humanity cover art
American Awakening cover art
Hollowed Out cover art
A Political Philosophy cover art
Soul Boom cover art
Shame cover art
Freedom Is a Constant Struggle cover art
The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible cover art
Nordic Ideology cover art
All stars
Most relevant  
Rabbi Jonathan is, in my judgement, the finest moral teacher of our generation: he is able to combine his own (Jewish) tradition with a universalist sensitivity in a way that is profoundly moving. He is a Somewhere person who can speak to the most sophisticated Anywhere person. And as for his simple thesis on the role of morality between politics and the market, it is devastatingly convincing. This is real human wisdom, and I loved it. I had just finished it, and its ideas were still mulling around my head, when I heard of his death: truly, we have lost a good man. May I one day meet him in heaven.

Deep, humane wisdom

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Jonathan Sacks' last book will be his legacy to a world that needs to stop and hear it.
Delivered with conviction, compassion and courage the Rabbi's wisdom, combined with considerable intellectual and incisive reflection, offers a mature and beneficial way of thinking about the greater good - every thinking young person and statesman or woman should read it.

ASTUTE THINKING FOR ALARMING TIMES

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

It's such a sad loss to the world that Lord Rabbi Sacks died before his time. However, this book is legendary and takes deep thought, linked with common sense, and propels the reader into an impressive place of life changing thinking.

I would encourage everyone to listen to these pearls of intellectual wisdom, presented in succinct beauty. The ideas within this can unlock our abilities to enhance all of the reader's interpersonal relationships.

A homage to one of the 20th and 21st centuries greatest scholars.

Amazing, iconic book

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

What a wonderful read with, so many brilliant insights and development of ideas. Highly recommend

Brilliant, must read for anyone interested in morality

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

I was already a great admirer of Dr Sacks, always wishing there were more like him. I listened with great interest, as a cynical atheist myself, to his words, hoping that he is right and that I am wrong. Just after I began the book I heard that he had passed away, making his words even more poignant and touching. God Bless.

Thought provoking; if only

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Transformational book i will be listening to it again
It should be part of the national curriculum

Excellent

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

A powerful message for all of us, backed up by Rabbi Sacks’s immense wisdom. He shows the importance of having the right mindset as a society so we can flourish

Meticulously referenced and thoroughly argued

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

a life time of wisdom and research to support it. Amazing mind providing sound arguments that are well supported by thorough research. amazing. G

Don't read this book, study it, then live it!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Probably Lord Sacks best book to date. Excellent critique of populism and the woke movement and the so called post truth/post modern narrative.He is probably one of the best living intellectuals. If you want a good understanding of what has gone wrong with the world and what we need to do to build a better future read this book. Covers not just moral philosophy but also theology, economics, and social science and political philosophy and Jewish thought.

Absolutely Brilliant

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

An amazing book, thoughtful, though provoking, a resource to consult regularly, a guidance. You will want to learn more about the various concepts, ideas, you will want to further educate yourself and comprehend further. Reading the end of the book will be a beginning not an end. As long as one is curious and willing to think, this book can be read again and again.

A wonderful legacy

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

See more reviews