A Revolution in Common

This book was provoked by the opening weeks of the second Trump Presidency in the United States, a crisis demanding an integrative counter-vision. The book combines some cutting-edge ideas and experiments from the commoning movement around the world, along with the author's own perspectives in historical theology, based on years of work in biblical and Quaker studies. One essay begins with reflections on the common life, inspired by the Ghent altarpiece. Two essays on anarchy and anarchism are fresh examinations of early Quaker and contemporary Quaker initiatives countering the enclosure of the commons. Another essay reframes the work of nonprofit organizations within the common life, and proposes a national common service. Economic, ecological, and civic spheres are then framed within a federal/covenantal model that places each in an evolving, revolving relationship with the others. Finally, a concluding essay places all of these perspectives within a working model of "truth" that is interactive and sustainable.

Thus, "revolution" here is not one set of forces overthrowing another, but all aspects of economic, ecological, and civic life set in motion, in a mutually informing, revolving relationship.

All of these essays are heuristic, demonstrational models to stimulate fresh imagination and action. Five of the essays are drawn from earlier journals by the author: Into the Common (2021), Further into the Common (2023), and Common at Last (2024).