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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 February 2024
One aspect of modernity which is of particular theological significance, and whose existence is intimately linked to the twentieth century’s distance-shrinking communications networks, is our new awareness of the sheer diversity of human religiousness. Those who live in a world where TV, radio and the press are commonplace features of a sophisticated media environment, cannot be blind to the fact that different people believe different things. This simple insight has profound implications for the way in which we formulate our theologies, communicate with each other and treat the natural world which is our common home.
Many theologians and philosophers have begun to acknowledge the quantum shift in thinking which the contemporary experience of religious pluralism demands. Langdon Gilkey, for example, considers the encounter with other religions to be ‘the most important new issue confronting Christian theology at the present time’. Wilfred Cantwell Smith predicts that ‘the religious life of mankind from now on, if it is to be lived at all, will be lived in a context of religious pluralism’. And Ninian Smart has suggested that ‘the earth has become in our time more or less a planet, a single globe. It is now a kind of city, the geopolis’ where the different faiths are brought into inevitable contact with each other.
1 Langdon, Gilkey. ‘God’, in Peter, Hodgson & Robert, King (eds) Christian Theology, an Introduction to its Traditions and Tasks, London: 1983: p.85Google Scholar.
2 Wilfred, Cantwell Smith, The Faith of Other Men, New York: 1963: p. 11Google Scholar.
3 Ninian, Smart, Beyond Ideology, Religion and the Future of Western Civilization, London: 1981: p.21Google Scholar.
4 Ibid., p.22.
5 Ibid., p.33.
6 Quoted in Norman, Myers (ed) The Gaia Atlas of Planet Management, London: 1985: p.159Google Scholar.
7 Many Voices. One World is. of course. the title of the report of the International Commission for the Study of Communication Problems which was published in 1980. One would hope that any debate about justice, peace and the integrity of creation would take place in the light of an awareness of the report’s recommendations for ‘a new, more just and more efficient world information and communications order’.
8 John, Dewey, Democracy and Education, New York: 1966: p.4Google Scholar.
9 ‘Over 50% of the population of the world live in areas where Buddhism has. at some time been the dominant religious force.’ L.S. Cousins, ‘Buddhism’ in John R. Hinnells (ed) A Handbook of Living Religions, Harmondsworth: 1985 p.278. An English translation of the parable of the poisoned arrow occurs in Whitfield, Foy (ed), Man’s Religious Quest, London: 1978 pp.216–219Google Scholar. The story is taken from the Mijjhima Nikaya I: 427–432.
10 Gaia Atlas, op. cit., p. 153.
11 William F. Fore, ‘The “Narrow Bridge” to Community’, in Media Development, Special Congress Issue (on ‘Communication and Theological Education’), October 1989, p.37.
12 Gaia Atlas, op. cit., p.159.
13 Marshall, McLuhan. Understanding Media, London: 1964: p. 124Google Scholar.
14 Gaia Atlas, op. cit., p.159
15 Ibid., p.21.
16 Paul Soukup, ‘Changing the Way Communication is Taught in Seminaries’, Media Development. Special Congress Issue, October 1989, p.3. My emphasis.
17 See my ‘Learning to be Responsible for the Media Environment’, Media Development, Special Congress Issue, October 1989, pp.10–12.
18 Many Voices, One World, Towards a New, More Just and More Efficient World Information and Communication Order, London: 1988 (first published 1980): p.3.
19 Karl Marx, ‘Theses on Fuerbach’. in K. Marx and F. Engels on Religion, Moscow: undated: p.12.
20 Huston, Smith, The Purposes of Higher Education, New York: 1955: pp.36–37Google Scholar.
21 These facts are gleaned from the Gaia Atlas, a veritable sourcebook of theologically relevant information.
22 See Hans Eckehard-Bahr, ‘Biblical Literacy in Book-Weary Europe’, Media Development, Special Congress Issue, p.31.
23 ‘Towards an Ecumenical Theological Affirmation on Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation’. First Draft WCC Discussion Paper for the World Convocation.
24 Media Development, Special Congress Issue (on ‘Communication and Theological Education’), October 1989.
25 John Dewey, op. cit., p.5.
26 Gaia Atlas, op. cit., pp. 207 & 214.
27 Media Development Special Congress Issue, p. 1.
28 The Decameron is, of course, the title of Giovanni Boccaccio’s classic work containing a hundred tales, which are supposed to be told in a hundred days. The Decameron tells the story of a group of ten survivors from plague stricken Florence who flee the city when it is ravaged by the Black Death in 1348. To amuse themselves and take their minds off the epidemic, members of the group tell each other stories.
29 Two recent efforts to bring to wider hearing the many voices of humankind’s religious concern for creation are (1) The New Road. the bulletin of the World Wildlife Fund’s Network on Conservation and Religion. The New Road was launched to coincide with the WWF’s 25th Anniversary events held in Assisi in September 1986; (2) the 1989 Shap Working Party’s publication on ‘World Religions in Education’ is devoted to the theme Humankind and the Environment. and contains contributions from representatives of many faiths.
30 Alfred, North Whitehead, The Aims of Education & Other Essays, London: 1962: p.23Google Scholar.
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