Religious Studies and the Global Community of Man

Abstract

We are presently creating the multiform human tradition as the effective and encompassing society in which each person and each particular society finds a comprehensive context for existence in the human order of being. Within this universal society of mankind each human person becomes heir to the fulness of man's past cultural achievements, participant in the convergent cultures of the present, and, according to capacity, maker of the future. This convergence of the present, the consequence of scientific and technological improvements in travel and communication, has not so far been characterized by any dominant religious or spiritual motivations. Yet it can be seen that exterior convergence does not bring about interior communion, nor does it necessarily Iead to cultural enrichment. An effective human development that could preserve and enhance the human quality of life requires a sensitivity to the deeper forms of communication between subjects. For these reasons an understanding of the interior and religious life of man and reconciliation of traditions with each other become matters of urgency.