Monotheistic religions in social well-being
Item abstract only
Author
Hubbard, Benjamin J. See all items with this value
Date
2004
Volume
5
Pages
48-56
ISSN
1530-4108 See all items with this value
Abstract
This paper will be a trajectory through three monotheistic religious traditions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—on the question of social justice or social well being. We will examine the roots of social justice in the scriptures of the three faiths and look at some concrete historical examples of how these scriptural ideals have been put into practice.
Our trajectory through the monotheistic faiths on the question of social well being will show a remarkable consistency of concern by the three faiths for widows, orphans, the hungry and the wretched of this world. We monotheists believe that an ethical Ground of Being, a compassionate deity, is the driving force behind this three-thousand-year history of philanthropy. What unites us with Buddhists and others in the non-theistic religious world is the conviction that, without social justice, any kind of religion is but empty ritual, pomp and circumstance or, as Shakespeare expresses it on the lips of Macbeth, “…a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
Our trajectory through the monotheistic faiths on the question of social well being will show a remarkable consistency of concern by the three faiths for widows, orphans, the hungry and the wretched of this world. We monotheists believe that an ethical Ground of Being, a compassionate deity, is the driving force behind this three-thousand-year history of philanthropy. What unites us with Buddhists and others in the non-theistic religious world is the conviction that, without social justice, any kind of religion is but empty ritual, pomp and circumstance or, as Shakespeare expresses it on the lips of Macbeth, “…a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”