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.Even the possibilities, first apparent in the 1990s, of warsconducted by the United States that were casualty free (at least on the U.S.side)raises profound issues of limits about which secular civilization has little to say,especially as secularists have endorsed the idea that whatever power a warringstate can mobilize in support of its security can be introduced onto the battlefieldso long as it satisfies minimal notions of  military necessity (that is, conformsto the rather modest restraints of international humanitarian law).Again, theabsence of a vital political alternative means that such issues go unquestionedunless the religious perspective is brought into play in central respects.Identity: Identity can emerge from many sources and is existentially beingreshaped by overlapping appeals to aspects of human nature, the shiftingboundaries of community, and the scientific validation of an enhanced conceptof human consciousness and genuine experience.Also, the era of exclusivesubjection to the nationalist expectations of loyalty to the sovereign state arebeing superseded in many settings by various modes of reexperiencing thedeepening reality of the whole and by the increasing sense of the yet-unfulfilledfuture, an emphasis that can be highlighted and explored by replacing the idea ofRELIGIOUS RESURGENCE " 153 citizen with that of  citizen pilgrim. This distinctly religious understanding ofessential political identity is gained by reference to a spiritual journey that isunseen and unlikely to be completed within the span of this lifetime but the valueof which is an object of intense faith and dedication that extends beyond prescribedand instinctive loyalties to nation and state.Such a pilgrimage embracestemporal loyalties to a future that brings justice and peace to the entire humanfamily and is dedicated to the process of establishing humane global governancefor all the peoples of the world.The citizen pilgrim can find a home within eitherestablished religious traditions or by a more personalized spirituality, but theessence of such an exemplary identity is to move energies and hopes fromstructure to process, from present to future, from states to world.But the challenge of identity is more complex than this image of citizenpilgrim suggests, embracing all forms of participation in collective experience,and responding to the appeals of social movements and regional restructuring,especially for the sake of democratizing the operation of the world economy andfinding ways to extend the rule of law beyond the reach of sovereignty.Europeanexperience is suggestive of what is possible under certain conditions.The moreglobal efforts to establish a functioning International Criminal Court and to buildsupport for a global parliament are indications of the relevance of identities thatcan no longer be reduced to state/society relations.Religion fits into thisdynamic by providing support for such efforts through its conceptualization ofcommunity and authority without being doctrinally and experientially tied tostatist definitions.Reconciliation: Diverse ways of knowing are alternative respected means ofcoping with the effects of human finitude and the impingement of limits, therebydiminishing the obstacles to a needed and desirable reconciliation of science,reason, and spirituality.Whether this reconciling process occurs within thedomain of formal religion or without, or in both, is of secondary significance.The need for reconciliation in the setting of severe conflict is a pressing need andmust be associated with mechanisms of accountability that can ground gestures offorgiveness in prior negotiations of acknowledgement and some process ofjustice.Many of these issues have surfaced in a range of efforts to facilitate atransition from an abusive past to a more democratic future at the level of thestate.Truth and reconciliation commissions in Latin America and South Africahave tried to find way to acknowledge past criminality without relying onpunitive and vindicative responses, but such efforts involve a delicate balance ofcompeting concerns, especially when past abuse was severe, widespread, andlong-lasting.Religious traditions and respected religious leaders have a specialcapacity to lend legitimacy to such efforts by articulating both sets of objectivesin coherent and resonant language [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]