
Told to thousands at the New Jersey concert for Live Earth
Source: The Sacred Depths of Nature (1998), p. xvi
Context: Any global tradition needs to begin with a shared worldview — a culture-independent, globally accepted consensus as to how things are. From my perspective, this part is easy. How things are is, well, how things are; our scientific account of Nature, an account that can be called the Epic of Evolution… This is the story, the one story, that has the potential to unite us, because it happens to be true.
If religious emotions can be elicited by natural reality — and I believe that they can — then the story of Nature has the potential to serve as the cosmos for the global ethos that we need to articulate. I will not presume to suggest what this ethos might look like. Its articulation must be a global project. But I am convinced that the project can be undertaken only if we all experience a solemn gratitude that we exist at all, share a reverence for how life works, and acknowledge a deep and complex imperative that life continue.
Told to thousands at the New Jersey concert for Live Earth
Banker to the Poor, A Conversation With Jim Yong Kim, October, 14
Source: The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order (1996), Ch. 1: The New Era in World Politics, § 1 : Introduction: Flags And Cultural Identity
Post-Presidency, Nobel lecture (2002)
Context: Ladies and gentlemen: Twelve years ago, President Mikhail Gorbachev received your recognition for his preeminent role in ending the Cold War that had lasted fifty years. But instead of entering a millennium of peace, the world is now, in many ways, a more dangerous place. The greater ease of travel and communication has not been matched by equal understanding and mutual respect. There is a plethora of civil wars, unrestrained by rules of the Geneva Convention, within which an overwhelming portion of the casualties are unarmed civilians who have no ability to defend themselves. And recent appalling acts of terrorism have reminded us that no nations, even superpowers, are invulnerable. It is clear that global challenges must be met with an emphasis on peace, in harmony with others, with strong alliances and international consensus.
“The realistic view of the City of the Future accepts that it will be a global city.”
Source: Building Entopia - 1975, Chapter 1, Ecumenopolis, p. 2
The Five Dimensions of Global Security: Proposal for a Multi-sum Security Principle, p. 15-16 (2007)
The Divine Commodity: Discovering A Faith Beyond Consumer Christianity (2009, Zondervan)
“The time is ripe for Chinese thought as a global quest for cultural pluralism.”
Knowledge is a Polyglot (2019)