ABSTRACT
Religions, on entering the public square, become part of a wider dialogue or conversation. They need to make themselves understood in the common language of reason, beginning with basic ‘structural’ questions. Several such questions were identified in the time of Socrates in a manner that sets an example for today’s global situation in which no single vision of the truth prevails. The question – how should we live, or what is our design for living? – comes first. Other structural questions follow. For example, are we prepared to accept limits, even to suffer, for the sake of others? Comprehensive ethical frameworks are difficult to establish in the face of rapid change and the intermingling of cultures and traditions. Nevertheless, there is a read-across from one situation to another. We can develop axioms of the historical imagination with a view to radical, practical, and inclusive action: radical, because of the scale of the challenge; practical, because of the difference between action with interpretation and a mere system of ideas; inclusive, because each religious, philosophical, or scientific tradition is one source among many of the ideas that can save our future. The cultural transformation that is envisaged here involves a richer understanding of the meaning of freedom and a reaffirmation of the broad scope of reason.
