Comparative Religious Ethics

Darrell J. Fasching is Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies at the University of South Florida where he has previously served as Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and as Chair of the Department of Religious Studies. His published books include The Ethical Challenge of Auschwitz and Hiroshima (1993) and The Coming of the Millennium (1996). He is also a co-author (with John Esposito and Todd Lewis) of World Religions Today (2006) and Religion and Globalization (2008). Dell deChant is Senior Instructor and Director of Undergraduate Studies in Religious Studies at the University of South Florida. He is the author of a number of titles, including Religion and Culture in the West: A Primer (2008), and The Sacred Santa: Religious Dimensions of Consumer Culture (2002). David M. Lantigua is a Ph.D. candidate in Moral Theology/Christian Ethics at the University of Notre Dame. He is a contributor to Hispanic American Religious Cultures (2009), and has published in Aporia, undergraduate philosophy journal. For the spring of 2011 he has received a grant for dissertation research in Salamanca, Spain, to investigate the topics of religious rights, just war, and the limits of toleration among sixteenth-century Spanish theologians and jurists.

• Preface xiAcknowledgments xiiiPart I Religion, Ethics, and Stories of War and Peace 11 Religion, Ethics, and Storytelling 3Storytelling: from Comparative Ethics to Global Ethics 4Religion: the Sacred and the Holy 9The Deep Structures of the Sacred and the Holy and Their Mediations 19The Awakening of Ethical Consciousness: the Power of Religious Stories, East and West 20The Great Religious Stories of the World – an Overview 30A Postscript on Religious Language 36Questions for Discussion 39Sources 402 Stories of War and Peace in an Age of Globalization 41Tales of Madness: from Auschwitz to Hiroshima 42Auschwitz and Hiroshima: the Formative Religious Events of the Postmodern World 45Techno-Bureaucratic Rationality and the Demise of Ethical Consciousness 51Doubling and the Myth of Life through Death: the Spiritual Logic of Mass Death in the Twentieth Century 56The Way of All the Earth: Global Ethics and Tales of Divine Madness 63Questions for Discussion 72Sources 73Part II War and Peace: Ancient Stories and Postmodern Life Stories 75Introduction: Ethics after Auschwitz and Hiroshima 773 Gilgamesh and the Religious Quest 85The Story of Gilgamesh 86Urbanization, Doubling, Death, and the Possibility of Ethical Reflection 91The Quest – the Way of the Virtues 94Questions for Discussion 99Sources 994 The Socratic Religious Experience: from the Birth of Ethics to the Quest for Cosmopolis 100The Story of the Trial of Socrates 101The Socratic Invention of Ethics – the Way of Doubt 105The Polis and the Quest for Cosmopolis: the Classical Era 109The Story of Augustine’ s Confessions – Faith as a Surrender to Doubt 116The Augustinian-Kantian Quest for a Global Ethic 126Questions for Discussion 135Sources 1365 Hindu Stories – Ancient and Postmodern 137Cosmic Story: the Myth of Liberation 138Formative Story: Arjuna and Krishna 143Life Story: Mohandas K. Gandhi and the Way of Brahmacharya 148Comparative Reflections: the Paradoxes of War and Peace 159Questions for Discussion 163Sources 1646 Buddhist Stories – Ancient and Postmodern 165Formative Story: Siddhartha 166The Cosmic Story Revised: the Myth of Liberation 173Life Story: Thich Nhat Hanh, the Way of Mindfulness and the Dao of Zen 181Comparative Reflections: Gandhi and Thich Nhat Hanh 196Postscript: the Virtues of the Quest in Gilgamesh, Augustine, and Siddhartha 199Questions for Discussion 203Sources 2037 Jewish Stories – Ancient and Postmodern 205Cosmic Story: the Myth of History 206Formative Story: the Audacity of Job 213Life Story: Abraham Joshua Heschel and the Way of Audacity 223Comparative Reflections: Heschel, Gandhi, and Thich Nhat Hanh 229Questions for Discussion 232Sources 2338 Christian Stories – Ancient and Postmodern 234Formative Story: Jesus of Nazareth 235The Cosmic Story Revised: the Incarnation of the Word 242Life Story: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Way of the Cross 247Comparative Reflections: King, Heschel, Gandhi, and Thich Nhat Hanh 257Questions for Discussion 260Sources 2609 Islamic Stories – Ancient and Postmodern 262Formative Story: Muhammad 263Cosmic Story: Further Revisions of the Myth of History 269Life Story: Malcolm X and the Way of Pilgrimage 275Comparative Reflections: Just War or Non-Violence? – Malcolm X’s Argument with the Gandhian Tradition 286Questions for Discussion 295Sources 296Part III The Path to Global Ethics – the Way of All the Earth 297Introduction 29910 Feminist Audacity and the Ethics of Interdependence 300The Feminist Challenge to the Myths of Life through Death 301The Feminist Alternative: Interdependence and the Ethics of Care 305Life Story: Joanna Macy and Buddhist Ecofeminism 311Life Story: Rosemary Ruether and Christian Ecofeminism 316Conclusion 324Questions for Discussion 325Sources 32611 Cosmopolis: the Way of All the Earth 327Globalization and the Story of Babel: from Ethnocentrism to Interdependence 327Ecofeminism: from the Social Ecology of Conscience to the Social Ecology of Justice 330The Way of All the Earth 343Questions for Discussion 347Sources 348Index of Names and Terms 349Index of Subjects 355