Development Gateway: " by Chris Jones, Date: April 26, 2005
This paper attempts to encourage a broad discourse on the spiritual value of cultural diversity and how such reflection can impact development policy on the local, national, and international levels. It is suggested that the fundamental principle that underpins the maturation of sustainable development policy is a spiritually and materially integrated understanding of the value of humans, their cultures, and the environment in which they live. Assessment is made of the current understandings of the spiritual value of cultural diversity as seen in key international documents. Spiritually based development indicators suggested by the Bahá’í International Community (BIC) are also examined and then related to personal experience of the author in work with Indigenous communities. It is suggested that successfully reintegrating the spiritual and the material, within a framework of humanity as one diverse loving family, empowers a release of unbridled human creativity of greater significance to the development of human civilisation than the European Enlightenment itself.
This paper attempts to encourage a broad discourse on the spiritual value of cultural diversity and how such reflection can impact development policy on the local, national, and international levels. It is suggested that the fundamental principle that underpins the maturation of sustainable development policy is a spiritually and materially integrated understanding of the value of humans, their cultures, and the environment in which they live. Assessment is made of the current understandings of the spiritual value of cultural diversity as seen in key international documents. Spiritually based development indicators suggested by the Bahá’í International Community (BIC) are also examined and then related to personal experience of the author in work with Indigenous communities. It is suggested that successfully reintegrating the spiritual and the material, within a framework of humanity as one diverse loving family, empowers a release of unbridled human creativity of greater significance to the development of human civilisation than the European Enlightenment itself.
