Prof Philip Sheldrake publishes New Book on Public Social Values and Virtues

Senior Research Associate and theologian Professor Philip Sheldrake FRSA FRHistS has published his latest book with Oxford University Press Civility: Cultivating Public Virtues (October 2024).

The book offers a critical response to the extensive social challenges and public problems that are present in contemporary society—particularly, although not exclusively, in the Western world. Civility identifies and discusses the critical public-social values and virtues that we need to focus upon and actively to promote to counter these problems and to develop a healthy human society. To achieve an effective, inclusive, and just society we must, first, reframe how we understand 'politics.' What does 'politics' mean and how should it be practiced? 'Politics' in its true sense does not mean something ideological but rather it involves the service of the 'polis'--that is, the human community.

Professor Philip Sheldrake, is Professor and Research Director of the Institute for the Study of Contemporary Spirituality at Oblate School of Theology, San Antonio, TX, as well as Senior Research Fellow of the Cambridge Theological Federation, and Senior Research Associate at Von Hügel Institute, St Edmund's College.. He specialises in the field of Christian spirituality, from historical, theological, and applied perspectives. He is also a specialist more broadly in contemporary spirituality, especially its connection with healthcare and place identity and urban studies.