Religion and Humane Global Governance

Features

• Cover Type: Hard Cover with 208 pages
• Published by: Palgrave Macmillan June 23, 2001
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 031223337X
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0312233372
• Book Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Weighs: 12.8 ounces

From Publishers Weekly
In this eloquent treatise on religion and globalization, Princeton University international law professor Falk has an agenda. He is even preachy in parts, but his message is one that cannot be ignored. Falk is concerned about an inhumane globalization that neglects human suffering and eschews the global public good. Thus he augments his earlier works (Human Rights Horizons, etc.) on questions of global governance by considering the potential role of religion therein. The prospects for a "humane global governance," he states clearly, depend on religious resources specifically, on whether the religious resurgences that have surprised so many in recent years can offer a socially and politically responsible globalization to counter the presently dominating inhumane form. In light of this, he calls for (and articulates) a "critical ethical ecumenism" and a "politically engaged spirituality." Falk grounds this call for religiously based activism and governance in a richly historical conversation about ethical values, relationships between religion and politics, and interrelationships among premodern, modern and postmodern political impulses. Notably, alongside his unabashed view of religion's central role in human global governance, Falk dedicates a full chapter to considering the history of secularism's variations (with a discussion of Turkey, Iran and India, in addition to U.S. and Western European contexts) and its potentialities in an era of globalization. Through a sophisticated and nuanced discussion, Falk's own position cannot be missed: religion contains the only basis for long-term planetary stewardship and humane global governance. Love him or leave him.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Product Review
A valuable counter-weight to the picture drawn by Samual Huntington's 'Clash of Civilizations.' -- Harvey Cox, Professor of Divinity, Harvard University

Falk argues rightly that the creation of a humane form of globalization will require a religiously inspired transnational movement. -- David Ray Griffin, author of Reenchantment without Supernaturalism: A Process Philosophy of Religion

Richard Falk once again cuts through the dross to define some of the central issues of our day. -- William E. Connolly, author, Why I Am Not A Secularist

[Falk's] vision of 'politically engaged spirituality' is key to the transformation of the religious and political drama of human history. -- Joseph Williamson, Dean of Religious Life, Princeton University