Prideaux Lecture with Professor Luke Bretherton

This lecture argues that recovering the social practice of the commons offers both a theological and practical framework for addressing today’s intertwined ecological and political crises.  Drawing on Aristotelian and Thomistic accounts of the common good, alongside a Christological conception of what it means to be made in the image of God, it presents commoning as a participatory and democratic form of political economy that resists the extractive logics of capitalism and what Pope Francis called "the technocratic paradigm."  Historically, the enclosure of the commons has produced cycles of dispossession and ecological degradation, culminating today in new forms of digital and planetary enclosure driven by AI and algorithmic capitalism.  In contrast, commoning re-embeds economy within moral and ecological life, enabling agency, reciprocity, and shared responsibility among human and non-human neighbours.  Theologically, it embodies a vision of personhood grounded in the image of God and fulfilled through participation in a just and generous common life.  By reclaiming the commons—from parish gardens to digital networks and crown lands—we can cultivate forms of integral ecology that honour the dignity of persons, renew creation, and re-imagine institutions capable of sustaining a humane, hopeful, and democratic future.

Alongside his scholarly work, Luke Bretherton writes in the media on topics related to religion and politics, has worked with a variety of faith-based NGOs, mission agencies, and churches around the world, and has been actively involved over many years in forms of grassroots democratic politics, both in the UK and the US. He also hosts the Listen, Organize, Act! podcast which focuses on the history and contemporary practice of community organizing and the role religion plays in democracy. Specific issues addressed in his work include debt, fair trade, environmental justice, racism, humanitarianism, the treatment of refugees, interfaith relations, euthanasia, secularism, nationalism, church-state relations, and the provision of social welfare.

The Prideaux lectures are funded by an endowment in the will of Canon S P T Prideaux, to honour the memory of Bishop John Prideaux of Worcester. They take place with the cooperation of the University of Exeter, the Diocese of Exeter and Exeter Cathedral.