Feeling safe is one of our biggest needs. But sometimes it seems like we live in an age of uncertainty and increasingly complex global crises. What then does it take today for human beings to feel and be safe?

In this course you will learn how Jain thought and practice can speak to each of the seven areas of human security: Personal Security - Health Security – Food Security –Environmental Security – Economic Security – Political Security – Community Security. Human security is not merely a matter of technology and logistics and a task for states and big organizations. It can also be approached as value-based: helping others to feel and be safe as an act of compassion. Underlying the concept of human security is the desire to understand what each individual human being needs to be able to flourish and live a meaningful life. In the course we will discuss different ways of answering this question, from the United Nations sustainable development goals to the wisdom of the Jain scriptures, and how they can inform each other to address today’s global challenges. All suggested course readings are provided as links and pdfs throughout the course.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand concepts connected to human security.
• Learn about compassionate Jain approaches to today’s global security challenges in both theory and practice.
• Develop the way you think about security, both your own and that of others.
• Get inspired for compassionate action that makes a difference in people’s lives.

Course Details

Learning Area

Social Justice

Instructor

Melanie Barbato, PhD

Melanie Barbato is the author of Jain Approaches to Plurality: Identity as Dialogue (Brill) and the editor of Interreligious Dialogue and Diplomacy, a special issue of Cross Currents (UNC Press). She is a Senior Lecturer in History of Christianity at the Pacific Theological College in Suva, Fiji, and coordinates the Network of Hinduism in Dialogue at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, UK.