Inter-religious Cooperation and Global Change

From a Clash of Civilisations to a Dialogue of Civilisations Josef Boehle, PhD University of Birmingham, UK Pacifica Review: Peace, Security and Global Change, (Volume 14, Number 3, October 2002)

A multi-centred, permanent World Network, Forum and Council for religious traditions, spiritual movements, indigenous traditions and inter-religious organisations is needed. This is the argument made here. Such a permanent, inter-religious world body, respecting regional and local diversity, would have to be multi-centred and include a diversity of organisational forms. It should be based on a global inter-religious network, with permanent, co-ordinating centres on every continent, with a global inter-religious coordination council, with a general assembly or forum held every two years and regional assemblies in the years between general assemblies. It should include humanitarian, research and media institutions; it would need to be supported by local and national groups and involve committed citizens as well as religious and spiritual leaders.

A World Inter-religious Forum, based on a network and coordinated by a council, could also help a wide diversity of programmes and initiatives to emerge in creative response to today’s great problems and long-term challenges, such as poverty, lack of education, epidemic diseases, war, the environmental crisis, conflict among religions, the root causes of terrorism, unjust economic systems, etc. It would need to be independent but have structural links to the UN System to be globally effective and to be able to facilitate peace-building, dialogue encounters, information exchanges and cooperative activities with the world of politics and economics. One of the most difficult challenges would be the question of representation, as it is not possible to find in the world of religions and spirituality clear criteria for who represents the multitude of religious traditions and spiritual paths. The representation in the forum and council should be based on the participation in a global inter-religious network, with additional places for large and clearly identifiable religious, spiritual or indigenous communities and for outstanding and widely recognised moral and spiritual leaders.

Such a network, forum and council would not be realised within a few years and would not be able to perfectly represent all religious, spiritual and indigenous groups. However, a development in this direction with a critical mass of initial participants could be realised within 5 to 10 years if the will towards global inter-religious cooperation can be further mobilised. To achieve this the support of the major inter-religious organisations, of religious communities and of key religious and spiritual leaders is crucial. j.boehle@bham.ac.uk commongood.info