Emerging Concerns Part 5 – Society / Kingdom

We have laid the foundations and have come to the last stage in the cycle of post-modern or emergent thought. The culmination of the efforts of community and role models, leaders, activists.  When we bring together our culture and the communities living in the culture along with the role models and leaders we establish a Society. This section will follow a similar format to previous articles.  It will present the views of secular leaders of post-modern thought followed by views of emergent church leaders evaluating how post-modern thought has been integrated into the church as well as the concerns and problems this entails.

To recap where we have come from and where we are at now; The Renaissance ushered in the age of reason. People always believed that communication and understanding were possible but the idea that more of the world followed a natural order that could be understood combined with the invention of the printing press blew the doors open for Rationalism. The next step was Naturalism further expanding the idea of natural order into a closed system where only natural law could explain the world. Some people of “faith” embraced Deism, the idea that God got the ball rolling with an innate discernible ethic and cause, and then left it to run on its own. Others rejected faith altogether and embraced Evolution and a world without God. But without God what were people to believe in; we are to believe in ourselves said Secular Humanism. With a failure to reach a consensus even among like minded individuals and discontentment with hard theoretical thinking Secular Humanists became somewhat disillusioned with rationalism leading to the rise of post-modernism.  Post-modernism rejected the narratives of the past and rather than hoping in the future the focus became on the hear and now. This world view can be seen in the works of post-modern philosophers, artists, and spiritualists.

Do you think that I count the days? There is only one day left, always starting over: it is given to us at dawn and taken away from us at dusk. – Jean-Paul Sartre

“All you really need to do is accept this moment fully. You are then at ease in the here and now and at ease with yourself.” – Eckhart Tolle, Practicing the Power of Now

Here and Now

If we can take something away from post-modern thought it is an awareness of culture; both present and past culture.  This is not to say that culture redefines reality.  Culture can color our understanding and practices as we see priorities and inferences through the lens of our experiences.  It can be difficult to step back and ask; are the ideals I apply, the priorities I have and the perspectives I live and profess really in line with what God’s word teaches?  We can find examples of this from biblical history itself as the early Jews and Christians were not immune to having a wrong idea about things.

In the first century some time between 30 and 33AD a rag tag group of men and some women followed around what at first they thought to be a great teacher.  After traveling with Jesus for a bit we can see in Mark 8:27-33 the disciples had come to realize that He was more than just a teacher.  Peter at the very least had recognized the He was the Christ or the Messiah and in John 11:27 Martha said “you are the Christ, the Son of God”.  But even so when Jesus spoke of his death and Resurrection they were stunned and Peter even tried to rebuke Jesus.  This is why He told them to be quiet about what the Spirit had revealed to them because they only had half the picture and would have gotten the rest of it wrong as they strove to create a kingdom on earth.  Even after Jesus had done exactly what He said, dying on the cross and rising again, they still asked him in Acts 1:6 if he was going to re-establish an earthly kingdom.

During the lifetime of Jesus, he was walking a very fine line between making himself known as the Son of God and the actual presence of the king himself, on the one hand, and concealing himself from being taken and made to be an earthly king on the other hand (like they wanted to do in John 6). – John Piper, What is the Kingdom of God.

Ultimately they were looking for something tangible in their here and now and we often do the same in our here and now.  We look for something to lighten the load of our present struggles.  One contemporary example would be the rise of Liberation Theology in impoverished Latin American countries in the early 20th century.  This movement refocused the doctrine of liberation from sin to liberation from social oppression resulting in revolutions.  Other examples would be legalism; with the moral decline of the roaring 20s many churches banned dancing and going to movies and after a time this came to hold the weight of orthodoxy. Just as the disciples struggled with seeking something here and now which blinded them to what the Word was saying and we are not immune.  This is not to in anyway to imply that truth is illusory. 

An End to Eternity

The ‘kingdom of Heaven’ is a condition of the heart – not something that comes ‘upon the earth’ or ‘after death.’ – Friedrich Nietzsche

That God became man indicates only this: that man should not seek his salvation in eternity, but rather establish his heaven on earth. – Friedrich Nietzsche

Post-modernists find little to no value in the future or of that which lies beyond it.  A result of such a lack of ultimate consequence what is true is not as important as what can pragmatically empower, reform and create a better here and now.  What can be achieved for ourselves, our communities and our society is paramount.

A recent trend of topics found in Christian books, articles and conferences has been that of “Kingdom”. God’s kingdom is something good to learn about. Not that it is a new topic; Jesus spoke extensively on the Kingdom of Heaven.  The issue is not the topic but its reinterpretation by Christian’s influenced by the post-modern world view. In the Lord’s Prayer Jesus prayed “let Your kingdom come”.  In the Secret Message of Jesus Brian Mclaren references this passage and interjects that Jesus secret message was the creation of a Kingdom here on earth where the will of God is established.

“Jesus message is not actually about escaping this troubled world for heaven’s blissful shores, as is popularly assumed, but instead is about God’s will being done on this troubled earth as it is in heaven.” – Brian McLaren, The Secret Message

For Jesus, the question wasn’t, how do I get into heaven? But how do I bring heaven here? The question wasn’t, how do I get in there? But how do I get there, here?… – Rob Bell, Velvet Elvis

As Christian’s we are apart of God’s Kingdom and as such we seek to be apart of His will. We also believe that the world functions best when His principles underpin its moral structure with real categories of right and wrong. We act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with our God. However we do not believe that alleviating the consequences of sin without expectations or requirements will build God’s kingdom nor do we believe that His kingdom is something terrestrial. The emergent church’s embrace of post-modernism has lead to not only questioning the significance of eternity but to even questions God’s right to hold people accountable for sin.

If the doctrine of hell is true then we would have to question God’s goodness.  How could an infinite God condemn finite man to eternal punishment for a finite amount of sin and still be called good. – Brian McLaren, The Last Word Interview

McLaren went so far as to say that the word for hell, Gehenna, in the bible referred to a refuse dump outside of Jerusalem and therefore means a place here on earth and experiences which might be characterized as living in hell on earth.  Almighty Creator God is infinitely worthy or worship and obedience. The emergent church’s focus on the here and now has resulted in an under-realized view of the majesty, holiness and worthiness of God as well as man’s lostness and depravity.

The apostles and the early church spoke often of eternity with longing. They would often say “Maranatha!” which means return quickly Lord Jesus. The promise of eternal life spurred the church on but emergent leaders somehow find this debilitating. If the focus on eternity has somehow caused complacency it is not due to its overstatement but to its understatement in our lives. If we truly value it then the things of this world will not hold us with the stuff of this world. Imagining the final judgement where peoples of all races gather in worship and throw down their crowns we will find ourselves perplexed. How many is enough? He deserves myriad upon myriads praising Him. Is this crown enough to cast down for Him? Paul said “you are my treasure”; we will want a crown to throw down and therefore will preach the gospel and try to remove all stumbling blocks, but we cannot remove those which are necessary forfeiting whatever jewels may be placed in that crown.

John 18:36 – Jesus answered, ” My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm.”

The kingdom was inaugurated through the death burial and resurrection of Jesus but it wont be fully consummated until we see the king. I’ll be a little honest I’m getting a little sick of talking about the kingdom when we are not saying much about the king. You know where the kingdom is? It’s where the reign of the king is. You know what’s more important? Having the right king, that’s Jesus high and seated on a throne and exalted. His reign breaks in through the preaching of the gospel and there is an already not yet tension that those who hold an under or over realized eschatology miss. – Mark Driscoll, Supremecy of Christ in a Post-modern World.

Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. – Westminster Confession of Faith

Rather than find hope in the gospel the emergent church has redefined the gospel to mean living in the way Jesus lived.  It then places faith in Christian’s to enact social solutions that will establish a kingdom here on earth..  Also rather than make pronouncements about God’s created (historic) purposes and correctness it attempts to find common ground with virtues people of all faiths can agree on.

Common Ground – A Virtuous Immorality (Value)

Science has always been in conflict with narratives. Judged by the yardstick of science, the majority of them prove to be fables. … Simplifying to the extreme, I define postmodern as incredulity toward meta-narratives. – Jean-François Lyotard

“We need a visible past, a visible continuum, a visible myth of origin to reassure us as to our ends, since ultimately we have never believed in them.” ― Jean Baudrillard, Simulations

These statement from post-modern thinkers show an incredulity to the idea that history follows a linear progression that taken together form a larger story.   In post-modern thought there are many stories.  The significance of a story is not whether it is true but whether it offers something compelling.  The truth is not as important as the outcome. 

Our modern assumptions of the Bible have often been wrong, so to move forward we need to reclaim the Bible as narrative rather than didactive in nature. – McLaren, A Generous Orthodoxy (didactive = instructional)

Is the greatest truth about Adam and Eve that it happened or that it happens? This story … is true for us because it is our story. We have all taken the fruit. We have all crossed boundaries…. This is why the Bible loses its power for so many communities. They fall into the trap of thinking that the Bible is just about things that happened a long time ago. – Rob Bell, Velvet Elvis, 058-059

“We live in metaphors……The tomb is empty because we have met the risen Christ – we have experienced Jesus in a way that transcends space and time. And this gives us hope. – Rob Bell, Velvet Elvis

This concept of narrative has been approached by the church in a couple of ways.  The first way is the emergent church has refocused views of the accounts in scripture from that of being history to the message and experience being the most important whether or not it is historically accurate.  This can be seen in the quotes from Rob Bell and Brian McLaren.  Another way is to push them to the back stage.  In Andy Stanley’s book Irresistible he calls for the church to  “unhitch itself from the Old Testament” and to begin and end with Jesus.  I attended a church where during a sermon based on this book the pastor held up Matthew through Acts and said we need to focus on these books as they are less decisive than the Old Testament and the epistles.  The sermon also stated that many young adults have walked away from the church because they were taught stories from the Old Testament and then went to college and were challenged that these histories were untrue therefore the church needs to focus on the gospels and acts.

If we think that we are escaping some of the pressures of the modern debate by playing down propositional Scripture and simply putting the word ‘Jesus’ or ‘experience’ upstairs, we must face this question: What difference is there between doing this and doing what the secular world has done in its semantic mysticism…? . . . If what is placed upstairs is separated from rationality, if the Scriptures are not discussed as open to verification where they touch the cosmos and history, why should one then accept the evangelical upstairs any more than the upstairs of modern radical theology? . . . Why should it not just be an encounter under the name Vishnu? – Francis Schaeffer,

Schaeffer points out so eloquently is that if we place the history of the bible below the experience then that experience might as well be the eastern mysticism of Vishnu or Buddha.  What we are sacrificing is they very authority of the Bible itself.  

God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we, murderers of all murderers, console ourselves? … Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we not ourselves become gods simply to be worthy of it? There has never been a greater deed; and whosoever shall be born after us – for the sake of this deed he shall be part of a higher history than all history hitherto.” – Fredrick Nietzche

All sciences are now under the obligation to prepare the ground for the future task of the philosopher, which is to solve the problem of value, to determine the true hierarchy of values. – Friedrich Nietzsche

The strong individual loves the earth so much he lusts for recurrence. He can smile in the face of the most terrible thought: meaningless, aimless existence recurring eternally. The second characteristic of such a man is that he has the strength to recognize – and to live with the recognition – that the world is valueless in itself and that all values are human ones. He creates himself by fashioning his own values; he has the pride to live by the values he wills. – Friedrich Nietzsche

“Life has no meaning a priori… It is up to you to give it a meaning, and value is nothing but the meaning that you choose.” ― Jean-Paul Sartre

Without an underlying narrative there is no underlying purpose and without purpose there is no principle.  Having written God’s obituary Nietzsche recognized that something was needed to fill the void.  He called for the strong man and the philosopher to create the values that society might go forward.  For postmodernism values are essentially the pragmatic causes and virtues which provide value to life and society as well as personal satisfaction. In 2007-2009 conferences held at the United Nations met to further understanding between cultures and religions and to identify common values shared between them.  Behind these meetings was the Interfaith movement.  Many public schools have identified a set of values and published these on signs posted through out school buildings such as compassion, empathy, respect, and these are good things for children to learn.

The church itself has seen a large percent of children raised in the church turn away from faith after college.  Many churches have looked for alternative methods and curriculum for their ministries to address this.  Some great observations and fanatic ideas have been put into practice such as the need to encourage parents to be more involved with their child’s spiritual development. 

If we recall the first article in this series the post-modern view on morality can be restated as “Values are part of a societies social standards and model. Tolerance, freedom of expression, inclusion and refusal to claim to have the answers are the only universal values”.  Statements addressing virtues and values can be seen from various “Christian” sources:

“For us, peacemaking and the pursuit of justice are very high virtues.  We view the ethical teachings of scripture as primary.” – Gary Burge, The Atlantic, You Can be an Evangelical and Reject Trumps Decision on Jerusalem.

“I didn’t have an epiphany. What I really did was to take a set of values or ideals that were first instilled in me from my mother, who was, as I called her in my book, the last of the secular humanists – you know, belief in kindness and empathy and discipline, responsibility – those kinds of values. And I found in the Church a vessel or a repository for those values and a way to connect those values to a larger community” – Barack Obama

“This is part of the problem with continually insisting that one of the absolutes of the Christian faith must be belief that ‘Scripture alone’ is our guide. It sounds nice, but it is not true. ” – Rob Bell, Velvet Elvis, p 67-68

“I can’t find one place in the teachings of Jesus, or the Bible for that matter, where we are to identify ourselves first and foremost as sinners” – Rob Bell, Velvet Elvis, p139

Some churches have expressed concern with traditional teaching methods such as bible stories, bible memorization, catechism, creeds, etc as being difficult to understand and not providing a concrete set of applications and examples.  Consequently many churches have also plugged into these trends in teaching virtues and values many of which the interfaith movements had identified. While one can see virtues and values exhibited in scripture and they are a good thing to learn I fear that the church may be aligning itself with the course of secular humanism and post-modernism.  There are several potential problems with these methods.

• Virtues and values phrase ethical actions in positive terms while pointing out benefits.  For example; be honest in stead of do not lie or be generous instead of do not covet.  This sounds great but why does the bible tend to use negative phrasing in the recording of the moral law?  It is fine to say be honest or be generous but is this not placing a great amount of faith in man’s ability?  Are we not looking to man as the solution to achieve a virtuous way of living resulting in the benefit of our community, where as saying “thou shalt not” or  “do not” calls to mind our failures and makes us aware of our sinful nature?  Secondly motivations based upon benefits may become self-centered asking “what do I get out of this”.  I’m not proposing that we shouldn’t teach virtues and values but we must also present the moral law in a scriptural manner.  The degree to which we realize our sinfulness both in nature and our practices affect how the loving kindness of God, meant to lead us to Him, confronts and compels us.  In response through repentance, faith, confession our relationship with our creator is restored and transformation begins.
• It is a genuine concern; are the children and young adults and adults even understanding the bible are they getting anything from scripture?  However we can give them a fish and feed them a bit or we can teach them how to fish and feed them for life.  It must be realized that not all understanding requires comprehension.  Rote retention of the bible becomes the foundation for putting into context future experiences whether or not you understand it at the time.  These scripture passages; Ps 119:11, Deut 6:6-9, 1 Tim 3:14-17, talk about the importance of committing scripture to memory.  We must also have faith in the activity of the Holy Spirit to make scripture active and alive, sharper than any sword.  We can look for virtues and values in scripture and they can be seen in the practices of many stories of faith found in the bible and there is benefit in doing this.  But we must also take the time out to approach the bible to commit it to memory and to learn how to approach the bible in an interrogating manner asking questions, observing and interpreting while avoiding the trap of coercing scripture; looking for what we hope to find.  We must teach children and adults how to navigate the bible and teach them about biblical history and doctrine as well as present its stories of faith in the promises and teachings given to us in scripture.

And did they tell you stories ’bout the saints of old
Stories about their faith
They say stories like that make a boy grow bold
Stories like that make a man walk straight

Rich Mullins, Boy Like Me, Man Like You

We must speak God’s law to the whole world; it is a part of the gospel; it is just as much a part of the gospel as the cross.  It is ok to spend some time on virtues and values especially if they are apparent in scripture. But our action should flow more from implication than application. Having a growing understanding of who God is and who we are not only from accounts in the Bible and considering God’s response but also from the clear instructional teachings in scripture. In younger years learning who God is, his commands, covenants and continuous fulfillment, and the gospel (sin, death, resurrection, repentance, faith and grace) as well as Bible navigation. In teen years (12+) learning how to interrogate scripture and apologetics. Also learning Core such as the inerrancy of scripture, original sin and the sin nature, Penal Substitutionary Atonement,  Jesus Exclusivity as the only way, God’s designed complimentary male and female gender distinctions, the conscious eternal torment of hell, and the Pre-eminence of God’s Kingdom over human culture to name a few.

Romans 7:7 – What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, “You shall not covet.”
Romans 3:19 – Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God;

Are virtues and values, peace and ethical teachings the greatest most important things the bible teaches us?  Well what does the bible teach? Does it not say the greatest teaching is to love the Lord with, well with everything that we are.  To love the Lord is to love who He is and to love His purposes.  Unfortunately some virtues and values such as peace, acceptance and inclusion have been used to diminish or even dismiss God’s purposes.  While we strive to be non-judgemental, inclusive and non-confrontational we may find that we have become very unkind to someone’s eternity.  Does this mean that we should confront everyone with a hellfire and brimstone messages?  Not really, but we should be able to say that we believe the bible says this or that is immoral and if someone disagrees we should be able to ask questions to get to the root of why someone believes so and if their justification could justify something else they may find untenable than they might start to question their stand.

Societies of Blame (Enablement)

My mind is part of God’s, I am very holy, my holiness is my salvation and my salvation comes from me. There is no sin. Do not make the pathetic error of “clinging to the old rugged cross.” The only message of the crucifixion is that you can overcome the cross.  – Eckhart Tolle, Practicing the Power of Now

morality is a hindrance to the development of new and better customs: it makes stupid. – Fredrick Nietzsche, Daybreak

In the here and now right and wrong aren’t real categories and the only reason there is disorder is due to a lack of acceptance and inclusion and their enablement. Post-modernism must then focus on building a society here and now. But such a society has found itself with a bunch of undesirable consequences. I mean who hasn’t looked at the world and thought, a lot just doesn’t seem right or fair.  With globalization we are interacting in an ever expanding multi-cultural world and we are more aware of the differences between cultures but also more aware of the tensions which exist between them.  Not only does the news media make us aware of the conflicts in the world caused by these tensions but we are also seeing increasing violence within our own country. Post-modern conclusion is that the cause must be those that are trying to impose their own ideals or order instead of social solutions.

As stated previously there is a lot that seems unfair and unjust in the world. Many are asking why violence and crime have increased while others point to various statistics reporting decreases in crime rates while politicizing some program or other as bringing about improvement.  The rest of us watch the news and its hard to miss the fact that there is a lot wrong in the world and merely a cursory look at the headlines one can tell that things just seem to be getting worse. 

The world and naturalism would tell us that we are neither good nor evil but a product of our genes and environment.  Therefore if we resolve all the inequalities in the world behaviors that are destructive should disappear.  Many emergent leaders have focused on this apparent solution to our current mess and called for the church and society to focus on social justice and restorative justice.  Within Christian circles some have questioned the effectiveness of the church to bring about transformation while pointing out decreases in church attendance.

More and more Christian leaders are beginning to realize that for the millions of young adults who have recently dropped out of church, Christianity is a failed religion. Why?  Because it has specialized in dealing with spiritual needs to the exclusion of physical and social needs. It has focused on me and my eternal destiny, but it has failed to address the dominant societal and global realities of their lifetime: systemic injustice, poverty, and dysfunction.

Brian McLaren, Everything Must Change

I have engaged with those outside the church on issues of morality and they have even made the statement that my beliefs in God and a moral law are what is actually sowing discord in the world.  In other words; as long as we just accept popular ideas and what society accepts then discord and disagreement will fade away.  If the church were to focus more on easing social issues and providing a private space for spiritual feelings, as long as we don’t bring those feeling into the world, then we might see real transformation. So in many ways the church has stepped back from issues and society starting in the 1960s with the removal of morality and God from education and public life. The results have been less than stellar as the chart of increases in violent crime below demonstrate.

“I can’t find one place in the teachings of Jesus, or the Bible for that matter, where we are to identify ourselves first and foremost as sinners” – Rob Bell, Velvet Elvis, p139
Notice how many places in the accounts of Jesus life he gets frustrated with his disciples. Because they are incapable? No, because of how capable they are… It isn’t their failure that’s the problem, it’s their greatness…. God has an amazingly high view of people. God believes that people are capable of amazing things. – Rob Bell, Velvet Elvis

The Emergent Church has flipped faith in God on its head so that now God has faith in Man.  Social Justice and Restorative Justice are terms frequently used by emergent Christianity.   Therefore they often accuse the church of not providing real options. One tweet I read said that if Christians want to decrease abortion rates the church needs to de-stigmatize unwed mothers, support scientific based sex-ed (not abstinence because that is a moral imposition), birth control, adoption, etc. But they forget that Christians have lead the charge in starting hospitals, orphanages and schools. Really what they are saying is if you do away with all the consequences of bad behavior, oh and don’t call it bad anymore, then people won’t do that a .. behavior…

It would seem that the term Social Justice has come to mean that society and individuals are bettered when living in an environment where peace and active acceptance of behaviors deemed desirable to the point of defining a person are recognized as a part of the culture and any negative consequences resulting from these actions are mitigated by social programs and our assistance and participation in a community. When the church embraces this they are aligning themselves with the following two tenants of Secular Humanism and post-modernism.

• Humanity is seen as a product of its environment and is neither good nor evil; the idea of an inherent sinful nature is rejected.
• Negative consequences are seen as a cause rather than a deterrent to bad behavior.  Punitive authority is seen as socially divisive and requiring obedience to such authority is identified as an oppressive inequality.  Hence those traditionally in positions of authority are gradually having avenues to enforce that authority eroded.

By giving into this the church has nothing more to offer than the world. Its no wonder that people would start walking away from the church.  Christians will have varying affects on the world around them but this will not be achieved by focusing on altering the world around us.  Where the world is trying to redefine what is right and wrong that is where the church needs to speak up. This includes speaking up against injustice. However we do not do so believing that we can build God’s kingdom here on earth. God’s Kingdom is not built through social services, bailouts, education. God’s Kingdom is built in the life of believers through a gospel life; one of daily repentance and gratitude for God’s lovingkindness and reconciliation to God. This is the only place where true lasting regeneration can take place. We must also live with the understanding that hell is real, scripture is clear on this.

Conclusion

They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.

2 Peter 3:4-7

We find ourselves in the midst of this prophecy from second Peter.  In the first part of this verse we see “all things are continuing” and Naturalism echos this sentiment as it is based on a uniformity of cause in a closed system.  The verse then says that they, “Deliberately forget” and we find in education today what is taught is an open system where an intelligent designer isn’t even considered an option.  Some have more faith in secular academia than the bible and try to reinterpret Genesis 1-3 or avoid it altogether.  And finally we have come to the last part of this prophecy, “Where is His coming” Postmodernism and the Emergent Church focus  on the here and now. In between this we find elevation of faith in humanity and Jesus redefined as a way of living; the savior of the world reduced to a really good role model.  This is not the gospel we have for the world; we have so much more to offer the world as the church. 

Isa 52:7 – How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.”

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1. The Universe Next, James W. Sire
2. Ultimate Reality, The Constraints of a World View, Dr. D. W. Ekstrand
3. Education for Values in Schools – A Framework, National Council of Educational Research and Training , Sri Aurobindo Marg, New Delhi
4. Foundational Documents of the Interfaith Movement, Rev. Dr. Jesse F. Tannerx
5. Interfaith Action In A Tumultuous World, Huffington Post, Feb 27, 2017, Katherine Marshall
6. Peace Through Dialogue 2007, Dr. Hema Pokharna
7. UN General Assembly High-Level Dialogue on interfaith and intercultural understanding, October 2007