HUMANIZING AND DIGNIFYING CULTURES: DIALOGUES WITH RELIGIOUS UTOPIAS
HUMANIZING AND DIGNIFYING CULTURES: DIALOGUES WITH RELIGIOUS UTOPIAS

Summary/Abstract: Cultures can be divided into two kinds: exclusive and inclusive. Exclusive culturesare oppressed, vulnerable, and dehumanizing. Inclusive cultures are dignifying andhumanizing, and they move towards the ideals of egalitarianism, prosperity, justice, etc.Religion, as part of culture, plays influential roles in the formation and promotion ofideals. This promotion can be located in religious utopias, because almost all religionshold utopias as central to their ideals and chart their ideologies towards these. In thecontext of exclusion and inclusion, the poor, the oppressed, the marginalized, the vulnerableetc. need to be included into the main stream of social life and this requiresvalues such as liberation, justice, compassion, mercy, charity, etc. No authentic cultureis possible without the inclusion of the poor. The awakening of such inclusion is offeredby religious utopias. Hence dialogues between cultures and religious utopias and alsobetween various religious utopias are essential. This paper seeks to understand howreligious utopias can contribute to the dignifying and humanizing of cultures.

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