One of the most original thinkers on the role of religion in the modern world is Karen Armstrong, a former Roman Catholic nun who left a convent to study literature at Oxford.  She has written many books about what religions have in common - and about their effect on world events.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today we are all bound together – electronically, economically and politically – as never before. Our financial markets are inextricably connected: when one falls, there is a ripple effect worldwide. What happens in Afghanistan or Iraq today may well have repercussions tomorrow in New York or London,’ says Karen Armstrong.

 

‘Our world has become dangerously polarised and many of our policies – political, economic, financial and environmental – seem no longer sustainable. We have a choice. We can either choose the aggressive and exclusive tendencies that have developed in practically all religious and secular traditions or we can cultivate those that speak of compassion, empathy, respect and an impartial concern for everybody.’

When she won the TED Prize in 2008 and the granting of One Wish to Change the World’, Karen Armstrong wished for help in creating The Charter for Compassion. 

 

 ‘The Charter of Compassion is a cooperative effort to restore not only compassionate thinking but, more importantly, compassionate action to the center of religious, moral and political life. Compassion is the principled determination to put ourselves in the shoes of the other, and lies at the heart of all religious and ethical systems. One of the most urgent tasks of our generation is to build a global community where men and women of all races, nations and ideologies can live together in peace. In our globalized world, everybody has become our neighbor, and the Golden Rule has become an urgent necessity,’ state the charter’s founders.

 

Each of us is invited to adopt the charter as our own and it calls for people of all faiths, and the nonreligious, to come together and help build a more harmonious global community.

 

Read the Charter for Compassion or watch a TED video of Karen Armstrong.