In The Gift of Responsibility, author Lew Mudge's gift to the reader is a synthetic, creative and thought-about discussion of many of the central elements and themes related to Christian moral responsibility in the twenty-first century. The way forward, Mudge insists – both in theory and in practice – is necessarily a way which is inclusive of creative and open thought about the interface between Christian moral responsibility and what is, or what Mudge encourages one to think of as, the shared moral responsibility of the three Abrahamic traditions. Mudge's ethical thought, firmly grounded in Christian sources, traditions and experiences, is accordingly in intentional conversation not just with Christianity, but importantly with interlocutors from the other two members of the Abrahamic family – Islam and Judaism. In moving in this direction of shared moral responsibility, Mudge has given us a model of moral and religious reflection which seeks to be fully up to the challenges of our day; a model which can be both used as an important resource for thought and action and can also be elaborated and built upon.
As he thinks through the common moral responsibility and vocation of these three faiths, Mudge is also in conversation with important voices and perspectives from the world of philosophy and the social sciences. Mudge draws especially on philosophical and social scientific material in order to illumine central aspects of modernity, which lead the authors to consider the possibilities of a public presence and voice of religion in various contemporary civic contexts. In this way too, Mudge's work is just what Christian ethics today needs to be: relevant, cross-disciplinary, with a forward-looking and cosmopolitan spirit.
While Mudge's project is a creative conceptual task, it also has significant practical intentions. He sets about describing and then building upon what he calls ‘the mostly unspoken but very real qualities or principles of inter-communal relationship that, however variously they may be grounded in the different traditions, make possible ongoing mutual commitments across continuing difference’ (p. 3).
He tells the reader ‘that such commitments as those described arise because those involved find themselves gifted and motivated by a sense of shared responsibility to one another and to the world. In the case of the Abrahamic faiths, this means responsibility to a covenantal promise of blessing to humanity’ (p. 3).
Lest one conclude that Mudge is unduly optimistic about the possibilities of growing numbers of communities from these three faiths working together towards common moral ends, Mudge provides several chapters devoted to specific contemporary examples of the ‘risky commitment’ members of the three faiths are already involved in together, and thus different ways in which together they may be a ‘blessing to humanity’. Mudge's optimism relies both on his insistence on the ability of the three faiths to recognise a common gift of responsibility, and also on concrete examples of what he correctly names as the precondition for this shared recognition of shared responsibility – that is, ‘the three faiths living in mutual relationship’.
As someone trained in Christian social ethics, and as someone who leads an institution of theological education which is involved in the day-to-day, ongoing challenges of being, or seeking to be, a learning community of the three Abrahamic faiths living in mutual relationship, I greatly appreciate Mudge's important work, and I am sure many others will also. I am especially appreciative that it is a creative conceptual contribution which helps lay the foundations for the growing ways in which peoples from the three faiths are indeed acting and thinking together and beginning to assume common responsibility for addressing the moral challenges which face the whole of the human family.
