From August 14-18, 2023, approximately 8,000 people from across the globe – religious, spiritual, or not – will convene at Chicago’s McCormick Place, as the Parliament of the World’s Religions (PoWR). Just 130 years ago, Charles Carrol Bonney, a Chicago lawyer and member of the Swedenborgian Church, found the 1893 Chicago Columbian Exposition’s singular, secular, and triumphalist fete of modernity’s economics, science, and industry sorely inadequate to compensate for the loss of true religion’s positive influence over world affairs.[1]
Bonney envisioned something nobler, and convened leading members of 45 religious and spiritual groups, to form and achieve “a spirit of understanding among the nations through religions,” countering the harmful effects of 19th Century Christianity. [2] They agreed first, the world religions must be brought “together at the same time and place, stand side by side with equal rights and communicate with respect for one another,” and second, the PoWR must be a movement of spontaneous encounter of ordinary persons of faith.[3]
Following the failed ambition of the 1910 Edinburgh Conference to “Christianize the world,” those believers shaken by WW I and threatened by WW II, needed a PoWR even more. Globally, Christianity paled against Chinese traditionalism, Hinduism in India; Zionism and Judaism in Israel; and Islam in the Arab states.[4]
The postmodern world was clearly polycentric, ever-changing technologically, with nuclear war threatening total annihilation; environmental fears portending extinction; and women’s movements surging. Amid it all, the World Council of Churches was established (1948) and Vatican II convened (1962-65). Yet simultaneously, religious wars raged in Northern Ireland, Bosnia-Herzegovina, India, Sri Lanka, and the Middle East. The hazards of religious polarization remain today, and the need for a brotherhood /sisterhood of religions, the founding rational for the 1893 PoWR remains as relevant!
Organizers of the 1993 PoWR saw need to strengthen the coexistence of the religions – common convictions, values, and basic attitudes. They found German Catholic theologian Hans Küng’s work on a “new world ethic” useful as the basis for engaging critical global problems.” Küng asserted, “There can be no peace in the world unless there is peace among the religions.”[5] Thus Küng, together with Daniel G. Gómez-Ibañez, and Thomas Baima, drafted a document to guide the PoWR’s work.
Küng used the term “ethic,” to signal a way of life, not a moral theory. After two years of consultations and revisions, the “Global Ethic” was born. Anchored by the Golden Rule and the mandate to “treat all humans humanly,” the language of the “Directives” of the “Global Ethic” allows for its reformulation in terms meaningful to various belief systems. Thus, the “Global Ethic” sustains a foundation for ongoing dialog and positive common actions. The 1993 Parliament, in Chicago, adopted Towards a Global Ethic – An Initial Declaration. Four Directives address commitments to a culture of: Nonviolence and respect for life; Solidarity and a just economic order; Tolerance and a life of truthfulness; and Equal Rights and Partnership between men and women. At the 2018 PoWR in Toronto, the 5th Directive, elaborating a commitment to “A Culture of Sustainability and Care for the Earth,” was amended to the text.[6]
Today numerous amplifications of the 5th Directive exist, most notably for Islam,[7] Hinduism,[8] Sikhism,[9] and Buddhism.[10] For Catholics, Laudato Si’– On Care for Our Common Home (LS) provides extensive authoritative specification of the 5th Directive. The Vatican and other Church agencies stress doing ecojustice activities with interreligious engagement.[11] LS is “affirmed by ‘a global community,”…. [and]…. “fits in terms of its audience, and the intended applicability of its vision, norms and aims, which embrace the whole world of human beings and other life.”[12] Here I offer some examples, pairing LS and the Fifth Directive, indicating potential for interreligious dialogue and action, serving the Parliament’s goals.[13]
Catholics hold that ethical principles can be acquired by observations as in science, from religious revelation, or both (LS § 199). LS invites dialogue with all forms of wisdom (§ 63), holds that the ecological crisis is a spiritual crisis (§ 119), asks all religions to participate (§s 7, 14, 63, 111, 201, 216, 222) and seeks dialogue with science (§199).
LS (§ 2-3) and the 5th Directive, lines 3-4 stress the moral character of human development from a global perspective. Each note the need for mutual respect and interconnection among all earth beings, humans included. Sister Earth “cries out to us because of the harm we have inflicted” by our disrespect and abuse of this divine endowment (§ 2).
LS, Chapter 1 (§s 2, 20, 24, 32) and the 5th Directive, lines 6-11 present the scientific consensus on climate change, and threats to soil, air, water, forests, oceans, biodiversity, and how environmental degradation affects human life and society. Both texts stress the evil of vast global inequalities, and the disproportionate harms of the environmental crisis on those bearing the heaviest burdens of poverty. Both assert moral mandates for change to humane levels of equity and sustainability.
LS, Chapter 2 (§s 62, 66, 67) and the 5th Directive (a), lines 13-21 surface the sources for the moral responsibility to care for the needs and well-being of others – including the environment. Pope Francis explicitly invites a dialogue between science and religion. He roundly corrects the abuse of Gen 1: 26-28 – claiming it purportedly blesses unlimited human exploitation of Earths treasures. Christians are morally responsible for three intertwined relationships – God, Neighbor, Earth. The 5th Directive raises intergenerational responsibility for human wellbeing. LS discusses that topic in Chapter Four.
LS, Chapter 3 (§s 101- 105, 114) and the 5th Directive (b), lines 23-27, both stress the need to minimize human impact and consumption of the Earth’s goods, and for upholding justice and fairness, for all. Pope Francis zeros in on the “technocratic paradigm” which seeks only maximizing profits, while promoting a reckless lie of unlimited growth, with no concern for the environment, or future generations.
LS, Chapter 4 (§s 137- 139, 159-162) and the 5th Directive (b), lines 27-30, both documents a call for ethical action by spiritual and religious people. This requires a study of the workings of society, its economy, its behaviors, and the ways it grasps reality. We are faced with one complex crisis that is both social and environmental. Strategies for a solution demand an integrated, intergenerational approach to combating poverty, restoring dignity to the excluded, and simultaneously protecting nature.
LS, Chapter 5 (§s 163, 165-166, 170-172, 174, 180) and the 5th Directive (b), lines 32-35 are not as parallel in content as are the others. The 5th Directive turns to the education of youth, while Pope Francis focuses on dialogue on environmental policy in the international, national, and local communities. Wealthier, greater polluters must bear the greatest burdens. Dialogue must include transparent political decision-making, that serves human fulfillment, not just economic interests. Also, it is agreed that dialogue between religions and science must serve the common good.
LS, Chapter 6 (§s 202, 209, 213, 224, 231) and the 5th Directive (d), lines 37-43 both address the need to change and develop new convictions, attitudes, and forms of life, including a new lifestyle. This requires individual conversion and community networks to solve today’s emergency. Religious faiths and spiritualities can motivate us all. Common moral virtues support passionate concern for the protection of our world. Christian and other spiritualities propose growth and fulfillment marked by moderation and the capacity to be happy with little. Love, overflowing with small gestures of mutual care, is also civic and political, and it makes itself felt in every action that seeks to build a better world.
Some criticize the Global Ethic for promoting the least common denominator of any virtue. Yet, the PoWR provides opportunities for dialogue for both scholars and common believers to deepen understanding of the divine and one another. Laudato Si’ can be read as an example from one global world religion to specify and “thicken” the global concerns of a universal ethic. Come to Chicago August 14-18, 2023, and see the Global Ethic in action.
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Bibliography
“1910 World Missionary Conference,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1910_World _Missionary_Conference.
Bhumi Project of the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, in partnership with the Hindu American Foundation, GreenFaith and OurVoices. “Bhumi De Ki Jai! A Hindu Declaration on Climate Change (2015).” https://hinduclimatedeclaration2015.org/english.
Bird, Frederick, Sumner B. Twiss, Kusumita P. Pedersen, Clark A. Miller, and Bruce Grelle. The Practice of Global Ethics: Historical Backgrounds, Current Issues, and Future Prospects. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2016.
Interdicasterial Working Group of the Holy See on Integral Ecology. Journeying Towards Care for Our Common Home – Five Years After Laudato Si’. Vatican City: Vatican Press, 2020.
Kuschel, Karl-Josef. “The Parliament of the World’s Religions, 1893-1993.” In A Global Ethic: A Declaration of the Parliament of the World’s Religions, edited by Hans Küng and Karl-Josef Kuschel, 77-105. New York: Continuum, 1998.
Parliament of the World’s Religions. Towards A Global Ethic: An Initial Declaration, 12-13.
https://parliamentofreligions.org/global-ethic/towards-a-global-ethic-an-initial-declaration/.
Pedersen, Kusumita P. and Myriam Renaud. “Towards A Global Ethic (An Initial Declaration) of The Parliament of The World’s Religions.” https://parliamentofreligions.org/global-ethic/a-brief-summary-of-the-global-ethic/.
Pope Francis. Laudato Si’- On Care for Our Common Home. https://www.vatican.va/content/ francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html.
Puglisi, A. and J. Buitendag. “The Religious Vision of Nature in the Light of Laudato Si’: An Interreligious Reading between Islam and Christianity.’ HTS Teologiese Studies/ Theological Studies 76(1) 2020, a6063. https://doi.org/10.4102/hts.v76i1.6063.
Sikh Statement on Climate Change. September 18, 2014. https://www.sikhnet.com/news/ecosikh-issues-first-sikh-statement-climate-change.
The Time to Act is Now: A Buddhist Declaration on Climate Change. May 14, 2015. https://fore.yale.edu/files/buddhist_climate_change_statement_5-14-15.pdf.
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[1] Karl-Josef Kuschel. “The Parliament of the World’s Religions, 1893-1993,” in Hans Küng and Karl-Josef Kuschel, Eds., A Global Ethic: A Declaration of the Parliament of the World’s Religions, (New York: Continuum, 1998, 78-79.
[2] Ibid., 79.
[3] Ibid., 81.
[4] “1910 World Missionary Conference,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1910_World_Missionary_ Conference.
[5] Kusumita P. Pedersen and Myriam Renaud, “Towards A Global Ethic (An Initial Declaration) of The Parliament of The World’s Religions,” https://parliamentofreligions.org/global-ethic/a-brief-summary-of-the-global-ethic/.
[6] See https://parliamentofreligions.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/global_ethic_pdf_-_2020_update.pdf.
[7] A. Puglisi and J. Buitendag, “The Religious Vision of Nature in the Light of Laudato Si’: An Interreligious Reading between Islam and Christianity,’ HTS Teologiese Studies/ Theological Studies 76(1) 2020, a6063. https://doi.org/10.4102/hts.v76i1.6063.
[8] Bhumi De Ki Jai! A Hindu Declaration on Climate Change, https://hinduclimatedeclaration2015.org/english.
[9] Sikh Statement on Climate Change, September 18, 2014, https://www.sikhnet.com/news/ecosikh-issues-first-sikh-statement-climate-change.
[10] The Time to Act is Now: A Buddhist Declaration on Climate Change, May 14, 2015, https://fore.yale.edu/files/buddhist_climate_change_statement_5-14-15.pdf.
[11] Interdicasterial Working Group of the Holy See on Integral Ecology, Journeying Towards Care for Our Common Home – Five Years After Laudato Si’ (Vatican City: Vatican Press, 2020). See especially Chapter 11.
[12] Frederick Bird, Sumner B. Twiss, Kusumita P. Pedersen, Clark A. Miller, and Bruce Grelle, The Practice of Global Ethics: Historical Backgrounds, Current Issues, and Future Prospects, (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2016), 59.
[13] The two documents differ in size, depth, and genre. The 5th Directive is a text of some 43 lines, counting the title as Line 1. Those line numbers are cited here. Towards A Global Ethic: An Initial Declaration, pages 12-13, https://parliamentofreligions.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/ global_ethic_pdf_-_2020_update.pdf. Laudato Si’- On Care for Our Common Home, https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html.