Politics for the Greatest Good

by Clarke D. Forsythe - published by IVP Books, 2009

A Book Review by Father John McCloskey

Clarke D. Forsythe, senior counsel for Americans for Life, has written an essential book for lawmakers and all participants in the ongoing culture wars, most particularly those engaging in public policy issues concerning the origins of life, the end of life, and marriage. In the preface to Politics for the Greatest Good: The Case for Prudence in the Public Square (IVP Books, 2009), he explains, "I wrote this book to address the nagging concern that citizens and political officials sometimes have" whether it's moral or effective to achieve a partial good in politics and public policy when the ideal is not possible." His answer is a resounding yes.

Forsyth provides a masterly discussion of prudence, that virtue which governs and guides the other cardinal virtues of justice, fortitude and temperance. Along the way he demonstrates how prudence has been defined and applied throughout history. Simply put, prudence means making good decisions and implementing them effectively. Aquinas summed it up in the lapidary definition "right reason about what is to be done." What Forsythe successfully shows his readers is that "There is no moral compromise when we make the aims of politics not the perfect good but the greatest good possible."

Forsythe reviews the thought on the classical virtue of prudence," against the backdrop of the thought of Greek, Roman and Stoic philosophers like Aristotle, Seneca, Cicero, Augustine, and Thomas Aquinas." He then studies the practical political application of prudence in the founding of the American republic and the divergent approaches of William Wilberforce and Abraham Lincoln to ending slavery. Forsythe next examines prudence in relation to the moral watershed of our time, legalized abortion, and finishes with a chapter on "Regulating Biotechnology to Protect Human Life and Human Goods."

This book should not be only on your bookshelf but in your hands and before your eyes, whether you rely on paper or on Kindle or on some other electronic medium. The present-day issues we are grappling with require both human and supernatural use of the virtue of prudence. Without exaggeration, what is at stake is nothing less than our Western civilization. Our revulsion against the moral horrors of our age can incline us to reject anything less than complete and immediate reversal of Roe v. Wade and other repellent aspects of the current social order. But among the tasks of prudence is helping us perceive and judge gradations of good and evil, guiding our adoption of the most productive strategies to promote the good and amend the bad. Forsythe's book reminds us that at times the best is the enemy of the good.

First appeared in the January, 2010 issue of First Things.