The ‘Global Ethic’: Criticisms and the Possibilities of Post-secular Thinking*

Abstract

This paper begins by considering the proposal of Hans Küng and others for a ‘global ethic’ (presented to the World Parliament of Religions in 1993). It briefly surveys some of the common critiques of the ethic before looking at the postmodern ethics of Zygmunt Bauman and recent philosophical and theological movements in Christian thinking that seek to move ‘beyond the secular’: e.g. Radical Orthodoxy. Following on from this, the paper considers the possible contribution of such ‘post-secular’ theological movements, particularly in terms of their ontologies of peace, beauty, and ‘participation’ in the divine. These narratives are contrasted with the ‘secular’ global ethic and the paper concludes by considering the possibility of a more fruitful trialogue between the Abrahamic religions on the basis of a post-secular discourse.