Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Martin Forward
HIS ARTICLE LOOKS AT the Global Ethic project, its origins, achievements, and also criticisms of it.
The project became fairly widely known when 143 leaders from across the spectrum of the world's religions signed up to it
at the 1993 meeting of The Parliament of the World's Religions in
Chicago, held to celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of the original Chicago Parliament held as part of the Columbian Exposition in
1893. This 1993 parliament condemned the parlous state of the world,
such things as the looting of the planet's resources; widespread poverty, and particularly "aggression and hatred in the name of religion".
Those who signed up to it affirmed that "there is an irrevocable, unconditional norm for all areas of life, for families and communities,
for races, nations, and religions. There already exist ancient guidelines
for human behavior which are found in the teachings of the religions
of the world and which are the condition for a sustainable world order" (http://www.religioustolerance.org/parliame.htm). Behind this
declaration was the distinguished theologian Hans Kng, whose followers canvassed widely for signatures at the 1993 meeting.
Kng had written a book in 1990 called Global Responsibility
(English translation 1991) in which he argued that religions can contribute to world peace only if they reaffirm and live out their core
values. He spelled out his conviction that there can be
No dialogue between the religions without investigation of the foundations of the religions.
39
40
41
some relief that they rediscovered the Golden Rule as a useful, generally-accepted religious teaching that seems more inclusive than partisan and exclusive. This notion or even directive that you should treat
others as you yourself wish to be treated can be found in many religions of the world. Lots of recent introductory books about religion
and dialogue include a chapter or a section on the Golden Rule, and
offer some examples from the scriptures and teachings of all the religions. (An important book at the time about this subject was Jeffrey
Wattles' The Golden Rule, OUP, 1996.)
As the 1990s developed, so did the range of issues that the Global
Ethic attempted to discuss from an inclusive, inter-religious position.
In 2000, an important book was published: Explorations in Global
Ethics: Comparative Religious Ethics and Interreligious Dialogue
(edited by S.B. Twiss and B. Grelle, Westview Press). This provided scholarly discussion by members of many world faiths of human
rights, distributive justice, the environment, issues of war and peace,
genocide and other pressing topics. In the manner of many current introductions to religious topics, issues of method and theory are given
weighty treatment in it. But glimmers of enthusiasm and animation
emergefromthe serious, rather ponderous tone of most of this work.
Meanwhile Kng had been actively pursuing his agenda to further the Global Ethic project. His Global Ethic Foundation opened in
1995; its website is at http://www.weltethos.org/dat_eng/index_e.htm.
Its three aims are to: carry out and encourage inter-cultural and interreligious research; stimulate and implement inter-cultural and interreligious education; enable and support such inter-cultural and interreligious encounter necessary for research and education. As part of
this educative strategy, Kng prepared a series of seven TV documentaries on Exploring the Tracks ofthe World Religions in the late 1990s.
He was also a consultant to the InterAction Council, a body of expoliticians (or elder statesmen, if you prefer), first chaired by Helmut
Schmidt, formerly Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany.
The Council produced a 'Universal Declaration of Human Responsibilities' in time for thefiftiethanniversary in 1998 of the adoption of
the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights.
Also in 1998, the President of Iran, Seyed Mohammad Khatami,
made a speech to the UN General Assembly, in effect proposing that
the Global Ethic should be discussed at the UN level. This resulted
42
43
44
45
46
^ s
Copyright and Use:
As an ATLAS user, you may print, download, or send articles for individual use
according to fair use as defined by U.S. and international copyright law and as
otherwise authorized under your respective ATLAS subscriber agreement.
No content may be copied or emailed to multiple sites or publicly posted without the
copyright holder(s)' express written permission. Any use, decompiling,
reproduction, or distribution of this journal in excess of fair use provisions may be a
violation of copyright law.
This journal is made available to you through the ATLAS collection with permission
from the copyright holder(s). The copyright holder for an entire issue of a journal
typically is the journal owner, who also may own the copyright in each article. However,
for certain articles, the author of the article may maintain the copyright in the article.
Please contact the copyright holder(s) to request permission to use an article or specific
work for any use not covered by the fair use provisions of the copyright laws or covered
by your respective ATLAS subscriber agreement. For information regarding the
copyright holder(s), please refer to the copyright information in the journal, if available,
or contact ATLA to request contact information for the copyright holder(s).
About ATLAS:
The ATLA Serials (ATLAS) collection contains electronic versions of previously
published religion and theology journals reproduced with permission. The ATLAS
collection is owned and managed by the American Theological Library Association
(ATLA) and received initial funding from Lilly Endowment Inc.
The design and final form of this electronic document is the property of the American
Theological Library Association.