- Title
- ‚Us and them‘: thinking beyond the security ethic
- Creator
- Lovat, Terence; Fleming, Dan
- Relation
- Religious Education Vol. 69
- Publisher
- Association of Catholic Religious Education and Catechetics
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2013
- Description
- In the following article, we will argue that encounters between religious worldviews (understood to include atheistic and agnostic positions) are a fact of our current era, and that their successful negotiation is crucial for civic well-being and therefore for the common good. In our current context, however, whilst tolerance is part of the dominant social discourse, such encounters are typically characterised by defensiveness, lack of authentic dialogue, and at times physical action and violence. Using Darcia Narvaez’s Triune Ethics Theory (TET), we will argue that encounters characterised by these features align with the security ethic, which is orientated towards a ‘fight or flight’ mentality, and to developing ideological systems that prize exclusivity, self-preservation, and status enhancement, frequently drawing clear lines between ‘us’ and ‘them’ and, in more provocative language, the ‘saved’ and the ‘damned.’ TET provides clues for shifting the nature of interreligious encounters towards what Narvaez refers to as the engagement and imagination ethics. These are characterised by their capacity to enhance empathy emotionally and cognitively with other persons, and are ultimately far better positioned to promote authentic civic discourse. Building on this suggestion, as well as evidence from the field of values education, we propose that providing spaces characterised by the features of trust, care and mutual responsibility, especially in the school context, for dialogue between religious worldviews7 is crucial for pursuing the common good.
- Subject
- security; religion; tolerance
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1342690
- Identifier
- uon:29014
- Identifier
- ISSN:0173-0339
- Language
- eng
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