Paths to a Culture of Tolerance and Peace.

 

The word peace does not have a unique meaning in the history of humanity,and it is convenient to assume that the challenge of unifying it for our timeis extremely urgent. To understand this situation, we should keep in mindthat, in the Roman sense (pax), it referred to the submission of any regionor people to the Empire - which submitted them to obedience to the “jusgentium”, meaning that peace was translated into obedience and submission.Westernization defined the colonialism of several powers but highlightedthe British Pax that took on a vast expression in the Commonwealth. In anattempt to reduce , the meanings of the word “peace”, it ended up becomingdefined as, “absence of war”, which did not always mean loyalty in relationsbetween different powers, but it meant just not appealing to violence thatseeks, through the submission of different peoples and lands, the impositionof victory.It was this vision that guided what was called Pax Dei, an expression sometimes intended to protect only non-combatants in times of war, but themost distinguished evaluators of the maintenance of peace between the States,being these habitual interveners in the action, although they cannot forgetinternal wars of a State, for differences of principles, values, or interests,are several and always valuable. It is above all the analysts of the faith, and creditors of international law, or very articulate university professors — forexample at the Universities of Coimbra and Evora in Portugal, and Salamancain Spain, who at the time of westernization by navigation and conquests,reminded a general thought of the rights of all Peoples encountered, a teach-ing that today is called “Iberian Peace Policy”, inscribed in the “IntangibleHeritage of Humanity”, entrusted to UNESCO. Among the religions, SaintAugustine (354–430) stands out, who, in the “City of God”, maintains thattrue peace does not depend only on the lack of hostilities, but rather on“tranquillity in order”.However, the most globalized thought was that of Kant, who advocatedfor the submission of the federation of free States to an obeyed law. Thisvision led to Jefferson’s Universal Declaration of Rights (1776) entitled Virginia Declaration of Rights, and, at the end of the 1939- 1945 war, to the UN General Declaration of Rights. However, being in this period the first time when globalism implies the meeting of all cultures and beliefs of humanity – not forgetting the fragilityof obedience to all UN bodies – it seems clear to me that two principles are inforce, not written and fundamental elements that ensure, if observed, peaceand sustainable development: “the single world”, that is, without wars, andthe “common home of humanity”, that is, all with equal dignity and peace,thus allowing for sustained equal development.In the UN Charter, there is no guiding reference on the cultural encounter of the various religions. However, there was an intervention that grew inimportance. The illustrious Secretary- General, Dag Hammarskj¨old, who wasto be a victim of an attack in the Belgian Congo, created a modest room atthe UN headquarters, with rows of modest chairs near the walls and a stonealtar receiving light from above, that was called the Meditation Room forall religions. This intention found no visible support, but the UN General Assembly welcomed Catholic Popes, Bishops of Rome, including Paul VI, John Paul II, Pope Emeritus, and presently Pope Francis.Also the German Father, Hans K¨ung, with his remarkable work on Christianity, Islam and Judaism that led to the creation of his Foundation for Global Ethics, affirms that, in the “religious situation of the time, there is no peace between Nations or peace between religions, without dialogue between religions; and there is no dialogue between religions without researching the good between religions. The existence of the Global Council for Tolerance and Peace is a valuable contribution to making this often abandoned objective finally part of the cultural heritage of Humanity. Read the full publication!