09.04.2014 Views

Alternative Globalization Addressing Peoples and Earth

Alternative Globalization Addressing Peoples and Earth

Alternative Globalization Addressing Peoples and Earth

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

Create successful ePaper yourself

Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.

1. PART 1. THE AGAPE CHALLENGE<br />

1<br />

God loves righteousness <strong>and</strong> justice; the earth is full of<br />

the steadfast love of the Lord.<br />

1.1 The AGAPE process<br />

(Ps. 33:5)<br />

The AGAPE challenge is a response to the question raised at the World<br />

Council of Churches (WCC) assembly in Harare, Zimbabwe, in 1998: “How<br />

do we live our faith in the context of globalization?” 1 Churches <strong>and</strong> the<br />

wider ecumenical family, which includes world communions, regional<br />

ecumenical organizations <strong>and</strong> specialized ministries, have wrestled with<br />

this question over the past seven years or so.<br />

In a series of consultations <strong>and</strong> studies on economic globalization 2 , they<br />

were guided by the section on globalization in the Report of the Harare<br />

assembly that recognized the pastoral, ethical, theological <strong>and</strong> spiritual<br />

challenges that globalization poses to the churches <strong>and</strong> the ecumenical<br />

movement. “The logic of globalization needs to be challenged by an<br />

1<br />

From the very beginning of this process, the WCC has made a clear distinction between<br />

globalization as a multi-faceted historic process <strong>and</strong> the present form of a pernicious<br />

economic <strong>and</strong> political project of global capitalism. This form of globalization is based on<br />

an ideology that those groups <strong>and</strong> movements involved in the World Social Forum have<br />

described as “neoliberalism” (cf. part 3.2 of this document). This distinction between<br />

these two underst<strong>and</strong>ings of globalization was introduced by the Copenhagen Seminars<br />

for Social Progress, cf. Jacques Baudot (ed.), Building a World Community. <strong>Globalization</strong><br />

<strong>and</strong> the Common Good, Royal Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs: Copenhagen 2000, p.<br />

44f.<br />

2<br />

From the process from Harare to the present Assembly, see Appendix.

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!