Beyond religious doctrine: Education for the peace and harmony

This presentation is going to reflect the significance of religious engagements in relation to values education in achieving peace and harmony. In 1993, more than 200 religious leaders from 40 faiths gathered in Chicago and signed “Towards a Global Ethic: Initial Declaration ” during the Parliament of the World ’s Religions . This first parliament and declaration is a milestone in the history of humankind – various religions have established a common ground to dialogue and to cooperate for the good of humankind. Along with the following parliaments, religious leaders and educators have paid attention to education in values, especially a peaceful and harmonious society is depended on human understanding of how values are adopted and adapted. In such a way, rather than simply regarding suchinterfaith declaration and ground themselvesas principles and guidelines, educators even further concern how they look beyond and how to carry out those value s, both religious and non religious, inside or outside classroom. In perspective of education professions, solely demonstrating or introducing different doctrines might not foster students uphold the values, like peace, harmony and respect etc, beyond. Preferably, the education and religious engagements have to be focused on students ’ understanding of different faith ’s core values . To facilitate the discussion, the presentation is going to first demonstrate the background of interfaith dialogue towards educ ation; then we will explore the ground of value education in achieving peace and harmony with a case in Hong Kong; in conclusion we will reflect the importance and potential of religious engagements in respond to its ground and case.