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"Preface" [2019] ELECD 2173; in Burdon, Peter; Bosselmann, Klaus; Engel, Kirsten (eds), "The Crisis in Global Ethics and the Future of Global Governance" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019) ix

Book Title: The Crisis in Global Ethics and the Future of Global Governance

Editor(s): Burdon, Peter; Bosselmann, Klaus; Engel, Kirsten

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Section Title: Preface

Number of pages: 4

Extract:

Preface
Peter D. Burdon, Klaus Bosselmann and Kirsten
Engel

. . . a true teaching is one in which the universal nature of the truth it announces
does not obliterate the name or the identity of the person who said it. . . all those
who cleave to the divine law, all men worthy of the name, are all responsible for
each other. . . in the Covenant, when it is fully understood, in the society which fully
deploys all the dimensions of the Law, society becomes a community.1

How do we get our bearings in today's world ­ a world in such obvious
global ethical crisis, whose capacity for elementary ethical thought and shared
self-governance is in considerable doubt? A world in which climate, biological
extinction, nuclear and refugee nightmares vie for our attention with images
of the most trivial consumer satisfactions on the omnipresent digital media?
Some grip on reality that will provide an anchor for renewed hope and a new
beginning ­ in the words of the Earth Charter - `as never before in history'?
We believe that the two chapters which open this book have the power to
inspire meaningful dialogue and action and open the way to such a prospect.
They are both by environmental ethicist and theologian J. Ronald Engel,
whose scholarship and leadership in the international conservation movement
over the last half-century warrant his reputation as a trustworthy guide. His
work has been the inspiration behind this book and its contributors.
When we speak to people about Engel, the ...