Publishing information:
Paul G. Schervish and Keith Whitaker
Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, May 2010. 210pp. Softback. ISBN 978-0-253-22148-3. $65
A new book by Paul Schervish is always likely to be a development of interest to people who study and care about philanthropy, as he is one of the most eminent experts on this topic. The book, co-written with Keith Whitaker, has an explicitly religious angle, exploring some of the spiritual resources of the Christian tradition that can aid serious reflection on wealth and giving. Six chapters focus, in turn, on six thinkers who have written about the ultimate purposes of human life: Aristotle, Aquinas, Ignatius, Luther, Calvin and (probably less well known to a UK audience), Jonathan Edwards, an 18th century American preacher. The notion of ‘moral biographies’ is described as a means for integrating an individual’s personal capacity and moral outlook in order to ‘live well’ and achieve their own ultimate ends. As an endorsement on the book jacket notes, this book: “brings a philosophical and theological perspective to questions about motives for and practices of giving that is little evident in the extant contemporary literature on philanthropy”.
