What Does It Mean to Be Human?: Reverence for Life Reaffirmed by Responses from Around the World

by Frederick Franck (Editor), Janis Roze (Editor), Richard Connolly (Editor)

In an inspirational act of faith and hope, nearly one hundred contributors--social activists, thinkers, artists and spiritual leaders--reflect with poignant candor on our shared human condition and attempt to define a core set of human values in our rapidly changing socity.

Contributors
* The Dalai Lama
* Wilma Mankiller
* Oscar Arias
* Jimmy Carter
* Cornel West
* Jack Miles
* Mother Teresa
* Nancy Willard
* Elie Wiesel
* James Earl Jones
* Joan Chittister
* Mary Evelyn Tucker
* Vaclav Havel
* Archbishop Desmund Tutu

What Does It Mean To Be Human? is a vital meditation on the endless possibilities of our humanity.

Genres: Philosophy, Anthropology

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

Reviews

[Jeremiah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a good eye opener of some different ways to view humanitarian issues. Out of all the short stories in this book, i would say this book was highly thought over and is useful in certain ways. I feel little informed of the humanitarian issues by reading some of theses stories, but some of them were a lot more direct on the topic. Many of these stories point out how others are being in-humane and in some are unclear. I personally didn't enjoy this book as much as i thought i would. in may cases i found it to be boring to read.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am learning that people are good and bad by nature. It's just that it is easier to be bad so naturally, people are mostly bad. We have a nature to want to be better than we are, but we are lazy. Sometimes, the thirst to be better overrides our laziness and we become more than just human.