AFRICAN RELIGIONS AND ETHICS
The Notion of Ethical Non-Dualism
Keywords:
ethics, relationality, connected, advaita, hinduismAbstract
The overwhelming majority of people in the contemporary world belong to and believe in some form of religious tradition, although the degree and commitment to their chosen religion may well be highly individualistic. Given this critical and massive numerical index, religion and ethics are potentially and powerfully vital in addressing many societal problems and how humans exercise and articulate their humanity. Most religions have ‘ethics’ as a code of ‘moral beliefs and values,’ embedded within the fabric of the tradition itself. This essay works on the premise that ethics, as value laden scripts and sets of relational belief and behaviour, are dynamically informed and richly nourished by the religious and spiritual traditions within which they are conceptually entangled. The essay focuses on the traditions of Advaita Hinduism and African Traditional Religions and raises a discussion on their non-dual philosophic perspective through the lens of relationality and the African notion of ubuntu.
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