Spiritual Perspectives on Globalization (2nd Edition)

Ira Rifkin

Description

What is globalization anyway? What are spiritually-minded people—
on all sides of the issue—doing and saying about it?

The economic and cultural dynamic of globalization is transforming the world at an unprecedented pace. But what exactly is it? What are its origins? What is its impact on our spiritual lives?

This lucid introduction surveys the religious landscape, explaining in clear and nonjudgmental language the beliefs that motivate spiritual leaders, activists, theologians, academics, and others involved on all sides of the issue. Included are the points-of-view of:

Bah’s • Buddhists • Earth-based and tribal religions • Hindus • Jews • Muslims • Protestants • Roman Catholics

Unlike other books on this controversial issue, this easy-to-read introduction won’t tell you what to think; it gives you the information you need to reach your own conclusions.

"As important as economics may be, it is not, as the great religions stress, the full measure of humanity. There is also connection to self, to others, to the ingrained values that have sustained cultures for generations and millennia, and to the belief in transcendence that gives it all meaning. In the end, what unnerves people most about globalization—including many in the West who may fairly be said to be on the winning side (economically, that is) of the process so far—is the threat it poses to that which is most precious to a life of satisfaction: our sense of meaning."
—from the Conclusion

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Jews
• Protestantism
• Catholic Church
• State
• Politics
• Muslim
• Judaism
• Hindu
• Religion
• Islam
• Protestantisme

Informations

• Publié par: Turner Publishing Company
• Date de parution: 21 mars 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781594735257
• Langue: English

Extrait

S PIRITUAL P ERSPECTIVES ON GLOBALIZATION
Making Sense of Economic and Cultural Upheaval
2nd Edition
Ira Rifkin
Foreword by Dr. David Little, Harvard Divinity School
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To Jesse, Brady, Jody, Chelsea, and especially Ruth, my wife and rock.
C ONTENTS
Foreword
Preface
Introduction
Why the Passion
1. Roman Catholicism:
Solidarity in Justice
2. Islam:
God as History
3. Hinduism:
Creating Global Karma
4. Judaism:
Speaking Truth to Power
5. Buddhism:
Bodhisattvas in Boardrooms
6. Bah Faith:
One for All
7. Tribal and Earth-Based Religions:
In Defense of the Mother
8. Protestantism:
Going by the Book
Conclusion
Nowherian Concerns
Afterword
Global Dreams, Local Fallout
Notes
Discussion Guide
List of Interviews
For Further Reading
Acknowledgments
Index

About the Author
Copyright
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F OREWORD
T HERE IS A WIDESPREAD BELIEF that the negative effects of globalization, particularly on economic and financial life around the world, are as severe as they are because of the absence of an effective counterweight. At one time, the labor movement was a barrier against many of the crueler aspects of corporate capitalism, as were the various versions of socialism that once existed. But those movements had their own problems, and in all the industrial democracies today, the labor movement is a pale shade of its former self, while socialism (along with communism) is taken to be mostly discredited.
With the resurgence of religion, some people suggest that the world s faiths are a promising substitute. This is a proposition that needs to be tested, and one of the great virtues of Spiritual Perspectives on Globalization is that the book effectively initiates that process of testing. In the pages that follow, Ira Rifkin provides, in an accessible and appealing form, some of the raw material by which to begin to determine how potent, how effective a counterweight to globalization the world s religions (or at least eight of them: Catholic and Protestant Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism, Bah , and Tribal and Earth-Based Religions) might be.
In a way, Spiritual Perspectives on Globalization represents a two-fold challenge. It pulls together a recurring set of criticisms and objections to the inequities and injustices in wealth, working conditions, and quality of life, as well as to environmental degradation and the exercise of unaccountable power (in the elegant phrase of one of Rifkin s interviewees) that are, as Rifkin makes clear, associated with globalization in the minds of many religious believers across the world. The book forcefully conveys the impression that there is widespread and intense concern in all of the religions represented about the ill effects of globalization, and about the need to counteract those ill effects in various ways. These shared themes might well become a platform for effective common action, though, as the material in the book also makes clear, things are only at a very preliminary stage.
On the other hand, the information conveyed in Spiritual Perspectives on Globalization presents a challenge to the religions examined, as well. While there is evidence of broad inter-religious consensus on the objections to globalization, at least among some members of each tradition, there is also evidence of significant division within the traditions, especially the Roman Catholics, the Protestants, and the Jews, as to how negative the impact of globalization actually is, and whether it might not have considerable benefits as well. If there is to be a united front -requisite, one would think, for providing an effective counterweight to globalization-these differences and divergences will need to be confronted and to some degree harmonized within as well as among the world s faiths.
Moreover, if religious responses to globalization are to make a difference, cooperation of a practical, organizational sort will need to be expanded along with more theoretical interaction. The labor and socialist causes were, above all, organized political and social movements. Religious people will have to begin to reflect on and learn from the efforts of movements like those to curtail the excesses of capitalism (both the successes and failures), if they are to come to play the kind of influential role many adherents described in this book desire. An important start toward that end is valuably reported in Ira Rifkin s engaging book.
Dr. David Little, Professor of the Practice in Religion, Ethnicity, and International Conflict; Director of Initiatives in Religion and Public Life, Harvard Divinity School
P REFACE
T HIS BOOK IS NOT MEANT TO EXHAUST all that may be said about so multifaceted a subject as spiritual and religious perspectives on globalization. Instead, look upon this book as an introduction to how concerned, informed people in many of the world s major spiritual traditions address the complexities that surround the issue that may be said to define the age in which we live. No attempt has been made to include every perspective within each of the eight traditions profiled.
At the back of this book is a list for further reading on the subject from a wide variety of viewpoints. Dip into it, learn more about globalization, and seek out opinions I ve not included. Education is paramount for informed judgment, and how we react to the sweeping changes that are altering our world irrevocably will determine our, and our children s, futures.
The book begins with a look at Roman Catholic perspectives because of the wide impact that the Church of Rome has on the world stage. It ends with Protestantism because contained within that tradition s myriad perspectives is a mirror of the virtually endless range of opinions on globalization that exist within faith communities. The remaining chapters are arranged, more or less, in alignment with the tradition s contemporary potential or historical contribution with respect to globalization. However, because each chapter is self-contained, the reader should feel free to read them in any order he or she desires.
Two final points. This volume is a product of primary research gathered through interviews and by attending forums, demonstrations, and other gatherings, both pro and con, at which globalization was the focus. Much was also drawn from the writing of various commentators listed in the endnotes and list of further readings. Finally, some readers will notice that diacritical markings are missing on words that normally require them (for example, the Sanskrit terms in the chapter on Hinduism). While many diacriticals were retained, others were intentionally dropped to make it easier for the majority of readers who might be unfamiliar with non-European languages.
Introduction:
W HY THE P ASSION
O N A BRISK SATURDAY MORNING , Bonnie Phelps and Janet Dorman awoke before dawn to catch a public bus that would take them from great poverty to incalculable wealth in about forty-five minutes. From 125th Street in Harlem, America s most famous black ghetto, the bus traveled south through Manhattan s Upper West Side before swinging east toward Park Avenue, among the nation s most famous of moneyed streets. Along the way, the bus groaned its way past a polyglot of ethnic restaurants, dozens of houses of worship representing both the old and new dimensions of religious America, and sidewalks crowded with faces displaying a full palate of racial tones-all attesting to New York s place as a truly global city.
Phelps and Dorman-the former a retired African American public librarian, the latter a retired white public school teacher-made the trip downtown with a handful of others from their church, St. Mary s Episcopal, a historic Harlem congregation with a long record of liberal activism. On this day, February 2, 2002, Phelps and Dorman would push that history a tad forward by joining some seven thousand demonstrators on the streets around the posh Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Inside, more than two thousand representatives of the global power elite had paid more than twenty-five thousand dollars each to attend the World Economic Forum (WEF), the invitation-only, annual gathering dismissed by the demonstrators as little more than an international cabal intent upon greedily dividing up the wealth of nations, and caring little about the consequences for the powerless.
Most of the demonstrators were half the age of Phelps and Dorman. There were hard-edged young men in crash helmets, self-styled anarchists seething with anger and itching to clash with the thousands of police on hand. In the aftermath of the terrorist destruction of the World Trade Center just months earlier, New York law enforcement was in no mood for radical dissent from the established order, and anyone who strayed from the fenced-off sites for allowed protest was swiftly cuffed.
The women of the Pagan Cluster were also there, chanting, One heart beating, one people, one earth, as they rhythmically banged on pots and turned marching into choreographed dance. Police listened warily as the cacophony of shouted objections grew. U.S. out of Afghanistan! Money for jobs not war! Stop cor