Comparative Religious Ethics: A Narrative Approach

"Comparative Religious Ethics" breaks with the assumption that there is a uniquely 'Christian' or 'Buddhist' solution to an ethical issue, and reflects instead the way in which ancient stories from diverse religions have influenced contemporary ethical issues. This approach to religious ethics is designed to appeal to students, and the text is accompanied by a teacher's manual which shows how to use this book in conjunction with contemporary films such as "The Long Walk Home", "Casualties of War", "Crimes and Misdemeanours", and "Wall Street". The authors illustrate how ancient stories have been appropriated to provide ethical orientation in the modern world.They show how contemporary ethical activists such as Gandhi and the spiritual 'children of Gandhi' from diverse religious traditions - Martin Luther King Jr, Abraham Joshua Heschel and Thich Nhat Hanh - drew upon ancient stories such as the Bhagavad Gita, the life of Jesus, the story of Abraham and the life of Buddha, and on traditional spiritual practices such as fasting, prayer and meditation, to forge a new inter-religious ethic of non-violence. This ethic responds to the prejudice, hatred and violence of the twentieth century as symbolized by Auschwitz and Hiroshima.The text places special emphasis on the ethical co-operation that emerged between religious traditions during the civil right-Vietnam war era. The challenge of Malcolm X to the non-violence advocated by these 'children of Gandhi' is discussed and emphasis is given to the feminist critique of religious ethics as providing a bridge between Eastern and Western religious ethics. The normative religious ethic that emerges is shown to be one in accord with the UN Declaration on Human Rights - an ethic of human dignity and human liberation.

Table of Contents:
Preface.Acknowledgments.Part I: Post/Modern Stories of War and Peace.Introduction: Storytelling and Comparative Religious Ethics.1. Religion, Ethics and Storytelling.Religion: The Sacred and the Holy.The Awakening of Ethical Consciousness: The Power of Religious Stories, East and West.The Great Religious Stories of the World - An Overview.A Postscript on Religious Language - A Word of Caution.2. Stories of War and Peace - Ancient and Post/Modern.Tales of Demonic Madness - From Auschwitz to Hiroshima.Auschwitz and Hiroshima. The Formative Religious Events of the Post/Modern World.Tchno-bureaucratic Rationality and the Demise of Ethical Consciousness.Doubling and the Myth of Life through Death: The Spiritual Logic of Mass Death in the 20th Century.Apocalypse - A Story of War as Ritual Purification.The Way of All the Earth: Global Ethics and Tales of Divine Madness.Part II: War and Peace: Ancient Stories and Post/Modern Life Stories. Introduction to Part II: Ethics After Auschwitz and Hiroshima.3. The Religious Quest and the birth of Ethics.The Story of Gilgamesh: The Crises of Morality, Mortality and Meaning.Urbanization, Doubling and Death.The Story of the Trial of Socrates.The Socratic Invention of Ethics and the Way of Doubt.4. Hindu Stories - Ancient and Post/Modern.Cosmic Story: The Myth of Liberation.Formative Story: Arjuna and Krishna.Life Story: Mohandas K. Gandhi and the Way of Brahmacharya.Comparative Reflections: The Paradoxes of War and Peace.5. Buddhist Stories - Ancient and Post/Modern.Formative Story: Siddhartha.The Cosmic Story Revised: The Myth of Liberation.Life Story: Thich Nhat Hanh and the Way of Mindfulness.Comparative Reflections: Gandhi and Thich Nhat Hanh.6. Jewish Stories - Ancient and Post/Modern.Cosmic Story: The Myth of History.Formative Story: The Audacity of Job.Life Story: Abraham Joshua Heschel and the Way of Audacity.Comparative Reflections: Heschel, Gandhi and Thich Nhat Hanh.7. Christian Stories - Ancient and Post/ModernFormative Story: Jesus of Nazareth.The Cosmic Story Revised: The Incarnation of the World.Life Story: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Way of the Cross.Comparative Reflections: King, Heschel, Gandhi and Thich Nhat Hanh.8. Islamic Stories - Ancient and Post/Modern.Formative Story: Muhammad.Cosmic Story: Further Revisions of the Myth of History.Life Story: Malcolm X and the Way of Pilgrimage.Comparative Reflections: Just War or Non-Violence? - Malcolm's Argument with the Gandhian Tradition.Part III: The Way of All the Earth.Introduction.9. Feminist Audacity and the Ethics of Interdependence.The Feminist Challenge to the Myths of Life through Death.The Feminist Alternative: Interdependence and the Ethics of Care.Life Story: Joanna Macy and Buddhist Ecofeminism.Life Story: Rosemary Ruether and Christian Ecofeminism.10. The Way of All the Earth.The Story of Babel: From Ethnocentrism to Interdependence.Ecofeminism and the Ecology of Conscience.The Way of All the Earth.Questions for Discussion.Reference.Index.

About the Author :
Darrell J. Fasching is Professor 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. He is the author of Narrative Theology After Auschwitz: From Alienation to Ethics (1992), The Ethical Challenge of Auschwitz and Hiroshima (1993) and The Coming of the Millennium (1996). Dell deChant is Instructor and Director of Undergraduate Studies in Religious Studies at the University of South Florida where he has taught since 1996. He is the Editor of the Journal of the Society for the Study of Metaphysical Religions.

Review :
"A unique text, recommended for upper-division undergraduate level and above." Choice