The Dignity of Difference: How to Avoid the Clash of Civilizations New Revised Edition

The Dignity of Difference is Rabbi Jonathan Sacks's radical proposal for reconciling hatreds. The year 2001 began as the United Nations Year of Dialogue between Civilizations. By its end, the phrase that came most readily to mind was 'the clash of civilizations.' The tragedy of September 11 intensified the danger caused by religious differences around the world. As the politics of identity begin to replace the politics of ideology, can religion become a force for peace? The first major statement by a Jewish leader on the ethics of globalization, it also marks a paradigm shift in the approach to religious coexistence. Sacks argues that we must do more than search for values common to all faiths; we must also reframe the way we see our differences.

Table of Contents:
1. Prologue 2. Globalization and its Discontents 3. The Dignity of Difference 4. Control: The Imperative of Responsibility 5. Contribution: The Moral Case for the Market Economy 6. Compassion: The Idea of Tzedakah 7. Creativity: The Imperative of Education 8. Co-operation: Civil Society and its Institutions 9. Conservation: Environmental Sustainability 10. Conciliation: The Power of a Word to Change the World 11. A Covenant of Hope

About the Author :
Sir Jonathan Sacks, who died in late 2020, was Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of Britain and the Commonwealth. He was the author of numerous books, including Celebrating Life, From Optimism to Hope, The Persistence of Faith and The Dignity of Difference, for which he won a Grawemeyer Award in Religion.

Review :
Aims to define nothing less than a basis for religiously sensitive civilisation. Americans will be taken with his incisive and clear writing style...he provides some much-needed spiritual uplift in this post-9/11 world, and his work is accessible to informed lay readers. This book is far more interesting for its discussion of faith and philosophy than for its determination of concrete politics. Perhaps this is the task of rabbis, to explain and guide rather than to rule and legislate. Jonathan Sacks writes well; every sentence counts, but the space behind the grandiloquence always leaves room for interpretation. It is this ambiguity which wins him as may admirers as detractors. The Dignity of Difference has a central and compelling vision: the magnificence and inspiring human diversity of our world ... The Chief Rabbi has made a convincing case for respecting people of different faiths and creeds. The book "has a bold and important thesis" said Lord Habgood, especially in how it addresses relations between different faiths. Unlike most other religious leaders, Mr Sacks has a wonderfully unbigoted attitude; he thinks and writes with great eloquence supported by an amazingly broad range of sources and reading. It is odd that a leading orthodox Rabbi should be at the forefront of a campaign to use religious difference as the catalyst for world peace ... in a brave polemic which is bolstered by feverish intelligence. Once in a rare while a book comes along that is so powerful and so earth-shattering that we want to get atop the highest mountain and shout out its praises...WE MUST ALL READ THIS BOOK....the most profound and deeply moving argument in favor of religious humanism I can think of. Sacks does not offer much help in determining how religious people are to grapple with such theological questions. His brilliant service is in showing us that we must. It is a profound meditation on human diversity and religious differences....It is a timely book for both believers and non-believers alike that has a profound sense of history running through it. ...wonderful book...bold and controversial. The Dignity of Difference is an important contribution to our understanding of the impact of globalization on the world in the aftermath of September 11...the book should be required reading for those concerned with the present struggle between Islam and the West and the promises, but also the potential threat, that market globalization represent.