Cultural Disarmament: The Way to Peace - Softcover

Panikkar, Raimon

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0664255493 ISBN 13: 9780664255497

Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press, 1995

Synopsis

In this important and timely book, philosopher and theologian Raimon Panikkar deals with the crucial issues of our time--war, religion, and ecology--as he redefines true peace and offers a way to achieve it in the world. Peace, he argues, requires more than nuclear, military, or economic disarmament. Peace can be obtained only by a cultural disarmament, which will require that absolution be abandoned for true reconciliation through ongoing intercultural dialogues.

About this title

About the Author

Raimon Panikkar has lived and studied in Spain, Germany, Italy, India and the United States. He was ordained as a Catholic priest and is Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. After teaching Sanskrit in Madrid, philosophy in Rome, indology in Bangalore, and comparative religion at Harvard and in California, he now lives in the mountains of Catalunya. He has written some forty books and more than nine hundred articles.

From the Back Cover

The world's inhabitants are clearly not only interdependent but singly unable to achieve peace. In this important and timely book, philosopher and theologian Raimon Panikkar deals with the crucial issues of our time - peace, war, religion, ecology - as he redefines true peace and offers a way to achieve it in the world. Peace, he argues, requires more than nuclear, military, or economic disarmament. Peace can ultimately be obtained only by cultural disarmament, which requires that absolutism be abandoned for true reconciliation through ongoing intercultural dialogues.

Reviews

Panikkar's passionate argument that the way to peace is, more than military disarmament, a disarmed culture originally appeared in Spanish in 1993. It is the result of many years of research and teaching on peace at the University of California, drawn together for publication when Panikkar received the Antonio Machado Foundation Prize. The fundamental thesis of the book is that victory never leads to peace; peace is an active receptivity that synthesizes freedom, justice, and harmony--not only among human beings, but also between human beings and the earth. Panikkar insists that the widely held maxim "If you want peace, prepare for war" be transformed to "If you want peace, prepare yourself for peace." The desire for peace, he says, is pacifying in itself. This gentle call to dialogue is a most appropriate prescription in an age of fanaticisms. Steve Schroeder

Edition details

• Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
• Publication date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0664255493
• ISBN 13: 9780664255497
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 156