Religion Ethics in Response to The Global Crisis - From The “Declaration of a Global Ethic” to View The Trends of World Religions - 中欧社会论坛 - China Europa Forum

Religion Ethics in Response to The Global Crisis - From The “Declaration of a Global Ethic” to View The Trends of World Religions

Authors: Zhang‚ Zhigang

Extract from ” World Religious Culture, 1997, No. 3, pp.8-13“

“Declaration Toward a Global Ethic” (hereinafter referred to as the “Declaration”) was released at “The Second Conference of the World’s Parliament of Religions” (1993.8.24   9.4) in Chicago, U.S.A.). It was called “the first-ever minimum ethic program recognised by all religions”. Over 6,500 people attended the meeting, from many diverse religions. Therefore, by analysing the “Declaration” and its background, the overall trend of the world’s religions can be established.

1) The drafting and content of the “Declaration”

The drafter of the “Declaration” was the famous German Catholic theologian and philosopher Hans Kueng. The topics of the “Declaration” include: (A) Introduction: Our world is experiencing a fundamental crisis, which is the global economic, ecological and political crisis. (B) “The lack of a new global ethic would mean that there would be no new global order.” (C) “Basic requirements: every person must be treated humanely” (D) The “four irrevocable directions.” (E) The “changes of consciousness.”

2) The “Declaration” and the contemporary religious dialogues

The formation of the “Declaration” was closely related to the contemporary religious dialogues. It could be said that the “Declaration” was the product of religious dialogues, and also that it reflected certain kinds of religious trends of the religious dialogues and world religions. The connection between the “Declaration” and the contemporary religious dialogues directly showed that the drafter was one of the main representatives of the contemporary religious dialogues.

The core issue of the contemporary religious dialogues was: the exclusivity of different religions on the question of truth, because all religions without exception claim to be the voice of the “ultimate truth”, and they not only have significant differences in the concept of truth, but also are mutually exclusive and mutually contradictory. In view of traditional exclusivity, two main influential theories of the dialogues formed are pluralism and compatibilism. Pluralism can be described as a radical dialogues concept, whereas compatibilism is more or less a kind of compromising tendency of the dialogues. The main representatives of compatibilism are Karl Rahner, and Hans Kung. Hans Kung’s perspectives on compatibilism consist of several distinct features: (1) The focus on the contemporary crisis of values. (2) The courage to challenge the authority of the church, delivering sharp self-criticisms on the history and current situation of the church. (3) The distinction between “nominal Christians” and the “real Christians”. (4) The viewpoint of compatibilism for the “Concept of God”.

3) The “Declaration” and the trends of world religions

The emergence of the “Declaration” is seen as “A Sign of Hope” that is expected to promote religious reconciliation and foster world peace. The introduction of the “Declaration” has been referred to as “the harmony of hope”, forming striking contrast to the fatalistic tone of ethics, especially those in a state of inertia towards religion.

To the researchers, the emergence and the response of the “Declaration” is indeed a sign, which from a significant viewpoint of the religious dialogues reflect certain kinds of overall trends of world religions.

1. Contemporary religious dialogues: from theory to practice. 2. World religions as a whole: rebuilding ethical image through self-criticism. 3. A possible overall trend: applying religious ethics to respond to global crisis.

The above analysis shows that the “Declaration Toward a Global Ethic” intends to play the role of the “Declaration on World Religious Alliance”. However, at the moment it is still unknown whether different religions or the major religions will be persuaded by “The Declaration”, voluntarily joining the alliance, and responding to the global crisis with the same religious ethics. Nevertheless, it is certain that the field of ethics has once again become a major growth point of all religions. All religions have begun to pay greater attention to this field in their religious dialogues. It also deserves the attention of researchers.

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