How to Do Good & Avoid Evil

Küng Hans, Homolka Walter, John Bowden

Description

Explore how the principles of a global ethic can be found in Judaism and how they can provide the ethical norms for all religions to work together toward a more peaceful humankind.

In 1993, the Parliament of the World's Religions endorsed the "Declaration toward a Global Ethic" composed by Hans Küng. In it, representatives from all the world’s religions agreed on principles for a global ethic and committed themselves to directives of nonviolence, respect for life, solidarity, a just economic order, tolerance, and equal rights and partnership between men and women. But the declaration was just the first step.

In this impressive volume, Hans Küng, probably the most famous living Roman Catholic theologian, and Rabbi Walter Homolka, head of Germany’s Abraham Geiger rabbinical seminary and distinguished professor, draw on the Jewish tradition to show the riches that Judaism can offer people of all faiths and nonbelievers in achieving these directives.

Presenting key sacred texts and theological writings, the authors make the case for binding values and basic moral attitudes that can be found in Judaism’s universal message of a better world. Exploring Judaism’s focus on ethical conduct over declarations of faith, the authors show that making ethical decisions is indispensable in an ever-changing world.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Roman Catholic theology
• Jewish philosophy
• Judaism
• Religion
• Hans Küng

Informations

• Publié par: Turner Publishing Company
• Date de parution: 20 août 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781594734236
• Langue: English

Extrait

How to Do Good and Avoid Evil :
A Global Ethic from the Sources of Judaism
2012 First Digital Edition
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
For information regarding permission to reprint material from this book, please mail or fax your request in writing to SkyLight Paths Publishing, Permissions Department, at the address / fax number listed below, or e-mail your request to [e-mail] .
Credits constitutes a continuation of this copyright page.
2009 by Hans K ng and Walter Homolka
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
K ng, Hans, 1928-
How to do good and avoid evil: a global ethic from the sources of Judaism / Hans K ng, Walter Homolka; translated by John Bowden.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN-13: 978-1-59473-255-3
ISBN-10: 1-59473-255-8
1. Good and evil-Religious aspects-Judaism. 2. Good and evil-Religious aspects. 3. Jewish ethics. 4. Justice (Jewish theology) I. Homolka, Walter. II. Title.
BJ1401.K86 2009
296.3 6-dc22
2009016181
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Manufactured in the United States of America Jacket design: Tim Holtz
Jacket illustration: iStockphoto.com / iLexx

SkyLight Paths Publishing is creating a place where people of different spiritual traditions come together for challenge and inspiration, a place where we can help each other understand the mystery that lies at the heart of our existence.
SkyLight Paths sees both believers and seekers as a community that increasingly transcends traditional boundaries of religion and denomination-people wanting to learn from each other, walking together, finding the way.
SkyLight Paths, Walking Together, Finding the Way and colophon are trademarks of LongHill Partners, Inc., registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Walking Together, Finding the Way
Published by SkyLight Paths Publishing
A Division of LongHill Partners, Inc.
Sunset Farm Offices, Route 4, P.O. Box 237
Woodstock, VT 05091
Tel: [phone] Fax: [phone]
www.skylightpaths.com
This book is dedicated to the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in great appreciation for the conferral of a Doctor of Humane Letters honoris causa upon Hans K ng (2000) and Walter Homolka (2009).
C ONTENTS
Acknowledgments
I NTRODUCTION
Walter Homolka
J UDAISM AND A G LOBAL E THIC
Hans K ng
J UDAISM S U NIVERSAL G IFT : A N E THIC FOR H UMANKIND
Walter Homolka
C ORE E THIC 1 T HE VALUE OF THE HUMAN : EVERY HUMAN BEING MUST BE TREATED HUMANELY .
Sacred Image of Man
Abraham J. Heschel
Primary Sources
C ORE E THIC 2 T HE GOLDEN RULE : DO NOT DO TO ANOTHER WHAT YOU WOULD NOT WANT TO BE DONE TO YOU .
Love of Neighbor
Samson Hochfeld
Primary Sources
C ORE E THIC 3 P EACE : COMMITMENT TO A CULTURE OF NONVIOLENCE AND REVERENCE FOR ALL LIFE .
The Tent of Peace
Hermann Cohen
Primary Sources
C ORE E THIC 4 J USTICE : C OMMITMENT TO A CULTURE OF JUSTICE AND A JUST ECONOMIC ORDER .
Public Prosperity
Salomo Samuel
Primary Sources
C ORE E THIC 5 T RUTH AND TOLERANCE : COMMITMENT TO A CULTURE OF TOLERANCE AND A LIFE IN TRUTHFULNESS .
Truthfulness
Leo Baeck
Primary Sources
C ORE E THIC 6 E QUAL RIGHTS : C OMMITMENT TO A CULTURE OF EQUAL RIGHTS AND A PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN MEN AND WOMEN .
Standing Again at Sinai
Judith Plaskow
Primary Sources
A FTERWORD : A V ISION OF H OPE
Religious Peace and a Global Ethic
Hans K ng
Declaration toward a Global Ethic
Council of the Parliament of the World s Religions, Chicago, September 1993
Glossary
Sources
Notes
Credits
About the Authors
Copyright
Also Available
About SkyLight Paths
A CKNOWLEDGMENTS
S pecial thanks to Dr. John Bowden, a real friend, and his colleague Margaret Lydamore, who have prepared this volume for the benefit of its English-speaking audience. John Bowden translated all the material not already available in English.
This book would not have been possible without the wonderful support of Dr. Ulrich Sander, the editor of the German original, which was published with Herder Publishers in Freiburg. Equally helpful and ever involved was Hartmut Bomhoff, whose advice and guidance are genuinely valuable. Another name cannot go unmentioned: at Abraham Geiger College, Tobias Barniske was untiringly involved in the process of selecting the anthology and preparing the book for publication both in the German and the English editions. The college librarian Susanne Marquardt gave much support and assistance.
At SkyLight Paths the book found marvelous support in Emily Wichland and her team. It was great fun to work with all of them, and we benefited from their professionalism. Special mention must be made of Tim Holtz for the outstanding cover design.
Finally, our thanks go to Stuart and Antoinette Matlins, gems in religious publishing. With SkyLight Paths and Jewish Lights they have created a singular environment over the years for religious publishing in general and Jewish authors in particular. Their enthusiasm and hands-on optimism have been experienced as a true breath of fresh air. For this we and many others will thank them forever.
Our deepest gratitude is expressed to another friend, Karl Hermann Blickle, who has been much involved in Jewish-Christian dialogue in the past decades and who generously offered to provide the necessary funding to make an English edition of this book possible.
Hans K ng Rabbi Walter Homolka
I NTRODUCTION
A globalized world also needs a global ethic. That is the conviction behind the Global Ethic Project that the theologian Hans K ng launched twenty years ago. Religion teaches that human beings are created in the image of God and therefore unassailable in their dignity. Freedom is always only that of the one who thinks otherwise, said the Communist Rosa Luxemburg. The parallelism is astonishing. The idea that human dignity is unassailable seems to be a common conviction. Yet every news bulletin gives the lie to it; there are daily reports of people being humiliated, tortured, exploited.
Hans K ng makes us aware that modern civilization is vulnerable, and globalization makes clear the differences in the world between poor and rich, between the various cultures and religions. The world of globalization and the Internet stands for apparently unlimited openness and unlimited possibilities. At the same time, the need is growing for orientation and trust. Without an ethical will, without moral force and energy, the problems of the twenty-first century cannot be tackled properly, let alone overcome.
Evidently, the Declaration of Human Rights does not settle things. We also need a Declaration of Human Responsibilities. It is here that the Global Ethic Project, which Hans K ng promotes with such tenacity, begins. He sensed that centering the world on Christianity does not get us any further. There is a need for a worldwide exchange between the religions, between worldviews in general.
We are only at the beginning of the discussion about tolerance, identity, globalization, and the consequences of the insight that in this world today we are all minorities. In such a situation we must be careful, attentive, and moderate. As a Christian theologian, Hans K ng, for half a century, has been one of the important international thinkers who feels bound by this insight. It is Hans K ng in particular who has come to know and think through both Islam and Judaism with more admiration and respect than many others, while remaining true to his own faith. He has expressed this for himself in these words: By following Jesus Christ, human beings in the world today can truly humanly love, act, suffer, and die; in happiness and unhappiness, life and death, sustained by God and helpful to their fellow human beings. That is something like a declaration of love for his own religion over and beyond any authority. His certainty about his own tradition and its core reality makes Hans K ng boundlessly open to people of other faiths. As early as 1964 in Bombay he said that the truth of the Gospel and the truth of the world religions can be related dialectically. According to K ng, finding Christian identity does not exclude the formation of an ecumenical consensus. Thus for him, the practical consequences for Christians are understanding, solidarity, and commitment of the church as the minority to the members of the world religions as the majority of humankind. Here was the beginning of the idea of the global ethic.
In the 1970s the Global Ethic Project developed further. Hans K ng came to the conclusion that despite all the differences in faith, doctrine, and ritual that must not be underestimated, similarities-indeed, agreements-can be noted among the world religions. All human beings are confronted by the same great questions, the primal questions about where the world and human beings come from and where they are going, about coping with suffering and guilt, about the criteria for life and action, and about the meaning of life and death. All religions are at the same time a message and a way of salvation. All religions communicate in faith a view of life, an attitude to life, and a way of life, and despite all dogmatic differences, they communicate some common ethical criteria. For K ng, these observations became the leading question of the 1990s: What is this common basic ethic?
As early as 1988 K ng wrote: The fact that they are bound together in ethics could become a unifying, peacemaking bond between the community of peoples; it could contribute to a freer, more just, more peaceful life together in a world which is becoming increasingly uninhabitable. From here K ng coined the term global ethic, which complements the globalization of business and finance. It