Addressing Fundamentalism by Legal and Spiritual Means

The post-Cold War era stands at a crossroads. Some sort of new world order or disorder is under construction. Our choice to move more toward multilateralism or unilateralism is informed well by inter-religious debate and international law. Both disciplines rightly challenge the “post-Enlightenment divide between religion and politics, ” and reinvigorate a spiritual-legal dialogue once thought to be “irrelevant or substandard ” (Falk: 1-8, 101). These disciplines can dissemble illusory walls between spiritual/sacred and material/modernist concerns, between realpolitik interests and ethical judgment (Kung 1998: 66). They place praxis and war-peace issues firmly in the context of a suffering humanity and world. Both warn as to how fundamentalism may subjugate peace and security to a demagogic, uncompromising quest. These disciplines also nurture a community of speech that continues to find its voice even as others resort to war. The four books considered in this essay respond to the rush and risk of unnecessary conflict wrought by fundamentalists. These authors engage political dialogue in areas of human rights, gender, religion, and global affairs. They present paradigms for democratic voice, systemic justice, and nonviolent forms of multilateralism. They collectively push for dialogic pathways that can moderate, even mentor the otherwise unilateral objectives of fundamentalists—be they a hegemon or a terrorist cell leader. These books speak prophetically to any and all religio-political sermonizers who proclaim the inevitability of a new, longer, colder “world order ” of conflict