A Book Summary from Books At a Glance
About the Author
Os Guinness (D.Phil., Oxford) is the author of more than twenty-five books. A frequent speaker and prominent social critic, he was the founder of the Trinity Forum and a drafter of both the Williamsburg Charter and The Global Charter of Conscience.
Introduction
The world needs to create a public square where everyone can speak out of their deepest values and convictions. Everyone needs the right to be faithful to their beliefs, and to live with freedom of religion, thought, conscience, and speech. These are not merely civil rights, they are human rights. Furthermore, it is only when people are able to live with this liberty that society will be able to work democratically towards harmony and peace. Many secularists are trying to ban religion from the public square, but there are also many countries where one religion exerts a coercive monopoly and silences all those who disagree. Eschewing partisan politics and special interests, secularists and religionists need to work together for freedom — this is political democracy, and is not designed to favor either the religious or the non-religious. Guinness analyzes these issues, surveys the current global scene, and offers a constructive proposal for moving forward.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 The Golden Key
Chapter 2 For All the World
Chapter 3 A War of Spirits
Chapter 4 First Freedom First
Chapter 5 Death by a Thousand Cuts
Chapter 6 Dueling Visions
Chapter 7 Looking in the Wrong Place
Chapter 8 A Civil and Cosmopolitan Public Square
Chapter 9 Later Than We Think
The Global Charter of Conscience
Acknowledgements
Notes
Name Index
Subject Index
Summary
Chapter 1
The Golden Key
With the rising global population, and ever-increased connectivity, it is essential that we determine how people can live out their most profound differences in the public square. There are an enormous number of diverse religious and ideological beliefs, and the public square must be a place that is safe for this diversity. This must be done because people….
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