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Chapter 6 - Conclusion to Part I: Fidelity to the Greatest of Dreams

from Part I - The Rise of a New Global Civilization

Leonardo Boff
Affiliation:
University of Rio de Janiero
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Summary

To give birth to a child is always a difficult and dangerous experience. The baby faces the worst experience of his or her life as it is squeezed from all sides, finally being expelled from the mother's belly. The new always comes about in an analogous fashion. Humanity is currently facing a difficult transition. It moves from the national to the global, from the global to the cosmic. It moves from mass and energy to information and communication. It moves from the macro to the micro (the miniaturization of devices and machinery), from the visible to the invisible (nuclear energy and leisure); from an externality to an internality, from a materialism to a holistic spiritualism, from a linear form of reasoning to a dialectical form of reasoning that understands the complexities of reality. This Passover, this journey, is not without some glitches and some substantial grief; some contradictions between the old that insist on remaining and the new that persists in flourishing. However, just as the mother who is in labor is joyful despite her enduring pains, we also are joyful because a new child is going to be born, a global humanity more human and benevolent.

I maintain the thesis that great changes are at our doors, that a new global civilization will emerge, and that we are moving towards a convergent communication between consciousnesses, namely, a noosphere.

Type
Chapter
Information
Global Civilization
Challenges to Society and to Christianity
, pp. 43 - 44
Publisher: Acumen Publishing
Print publication year: 2005

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