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Document Details : Title: Verantwoordelijk voor de wereld Subtitle: Culturen en hun oriëntering op waarden Author(s): HÄRING, Hermann Journal: Tijdschrift voor Theologie Volume: 47 Issue: 4 Date: 2007 Pages: 363-388 DOI: 10.2143/TVT.47.4.3203535 Abstract : This article surveys the development and present state of H. Kung’s Weltethos (Global Ethic) Project. After setting out parameters, Part I shows what the project means for religions: the world religions are seen as actors in world events; this takes them out of their isolation. Part II discusses the relation between values, norms and moral attitudes in the 1993 Chicago declaration. The declaration starts with the classic prohibitions. It concludes with a comprehensive vision of humanity’s future. Part III provides a close analysis of the concept value and its meanings. On the one hand, values remain subjective and pluralistic. On the other, every appreciation also contains an objective reason that appears important to humanity and the world and that can be subjected to rational debate. A text of Cassirer is used to demonstrate this dialectic. This kind of value can only be universal when it is important for everyone and when no one not wishing his or her own disadvantage can ignore it. This universality can be found in respect for life, in the pursuit of a just society and of authenticity and in gender equality. Even aside from all cultures and individual codes, these are based on the same human and humane structure. Part IV uses philosophical and theological texts to demonstrate this indispensable universality. It becomes clear that this reasoning surpasses specifically religious or theological argumentation; the fundamental rules of the Global Ethic Project can also be understood from secular reasoning. What need have we, then, for world religions? This is not the right question: people do not live from philosophical ideas but from deeply rooted motives and attitudes. Religions are de facto important actors in this. They comprise its heart, create motives and ensure that these rules are taken seriously on social, political, individual and existential levels. |
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