FEATURED BOOK
Subverting Hatred: The Challenge of Nonviolence in Religious Traditions
Developed by the Boston Research Center for the 21st Century
Published by Orbis Books, September 2007
Edited by Daniel L. Smith-Christopher
Table of Contents
Forword
Daisaku Ikeda
In the summer of 2000, two families with young children were vacationing on the shore of Lake Tiberias on the border between Israel and Syria. Suddenly one of the children swimming in the lake seemed about to drown. One of the fathers noticed the swimmer's distress and plunged into the water, swam out and helped the child reach the shallows and safety. The young father, however, died of exhaustion before he himself could reach the shore. The two families were strangers. The parents of the endangered child were Jewish; the family whose father lost his life was Muslim.
This true story is related in Crossing the Divide, Dialogue Among Civilizations, published by the United Nations Group of Eminent Persons immediately after the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001. The twentieth century was rife with war and violence. Everyone hoped that the twenty-first would be a century of peace. Then the 9/11 attacks seemed to dash those hopes. This act of violence shocked the world, ironically, just when the United Nations had designated 2001 the Year of Dialogue among Civilizations. The shadow of the attacks still darkens the world, as armed conflicts attributed to ethnic and religious differences continue to break out throughout the world.
In 1998, in the confusion accompanying the end of the Cold War, the Boston Research Center for the 21st Century first published this book, Subverting Hatred: The Challenge of Nonviolence in Religious Traditions to address the urgent situation head-on. In it, scholars representing eight major religious traditions pooled their wisdom to transcend their differences. By discussing religious peace philosophies, they made a profound attempt to overcome hatred and find a path to universal peace. Very well received among specialists, the book has been used as a textbook in more than 70 American universities, including Harvard, Columbia, Stanford, Tufts, and the Yale Divinity School. As the founder of the Boston Research Center for the 21 st Century, I am extremely happy that the book became a resource to help students--the leaders of coming generations--to learn wisdom about building peace while deepening their understanding of religions other than their own.
When differing groups, each convinced of its own rectitude, clash in hatred and violence it only leads to stalemate. All over the world, frequent conflicts aggravate animosity and resentment, thus tragically escalating violence. This ever-ancient, ever-new aporia (complex question) could be called human karma. Overcoming it requires a reexamination and recapitulation of the wisdom accumulated in cultures, ethnic groups, and traditional religions. Never before has this process been more strongly hoped for, or more urgently needed.
In the Foreword I wrote to the earlier edition of this book, I discussed traditional Buddhist pacifism, concentrating on the doctrine of nonviolence, or ahimsa. Buddhism teaches that inherent deep in human life are both the evil spirit, which breeds hatred, and the good spirit, which generates compassionate love and trust. From the evil spirit emerge violence (wrath), greed (uncontrollable desire), ignorance (fundamental egoism), and racial, cultural, ethnic, and religious discrimination and prejudice. Driving a wedge between human society and nature, the evil spirit is destructive energy and a major cause of indirect and cultural violence among individuals, religions, and races.
The good spirit, on the other hand, is rugged spiritual power toward nonviolence and the control of desire. It is altruism and the equality and union that altruism generates. Its uniting energy establishes ties among individuals, societies, ethnic groups, and all humanity and makes possible harmonious symbiosis with nonhuman nature.
Political and economic approaches to the confusion of our times do no more than treat symptoms and cannot affect essential solutions to the hatred swirling around in the minds of humanity. Though it may seem the long way around, the only course is to break the chain of hatred and violence in the human heart and cultivate the soft power of good oriented toward creative symbiosis. Then we must put that soft power to use in the building of peace.
I am convinced that developing and extending the good in human life constitutes religion's most important role in contemporary civilization. Inter-religious dialogue is the way to learn from each other and to educe from each religious tradition's brilliant spirit the way to develop the good that should be pursued.
This book is a forum for inter-religious dialogue in that it sheds light on the wisdom not just of Buddhism, but also of many other traditional religions from all parts of the world and offers diverse viewpoints on how to create a global society of peace and symbiosis.
Religions must no longer be rallying points for actions that bring harm and suffering to others. What we require most today is sustenance for a revival of the humanity inherent in all of us and exemplified in the tragic incident related at the opening of this foreword. Religions should serve that purpose. And to this end, humanistic education that cultivates universal values and spirituality--the humanism that lies at the heart of all religions--is indispensable.
Education and religion are inseparable. Without education religion can become self-righteous. The reverse side of religion is humane education. And education reveals its true value only when backed up by profound spirituality and philosophy. In the end, the final solution to war, violence, and conflict requires a transformation of the vision of what it means to be truly human.
The urgent task we face is building solidarity among world citizens by using humanistic education to overcome differences and expand the circle of mutual understanding. Young people who bear the responsibility for a future of peaceful symbiosis and who are the key to subverting hatred must be the heart of our efforts. I hope that this book will help open the door on a new age free of hatred.
In closing, I should like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the authors, who unstintingly assisted in the project, and to everyone who worked tirelessly on this revised edition.
Complimentary examination copies are avaiable for professors.
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