Abstract:
In his book, 21 Lessons for the 21st century, the historian Yuval Noah Harari devoted a chapter
to the question of whether traditional religions could provide any guidance in solving the
momentous global problems confronting us today. He drew the rather negative conclusion
that they do not have any constructive contribution to make in solving these problems. This
article made an original contribution to scholarly research by, from the perspective of Christian
Ethics, subjecting this recently expressed view of Harari to critical scrutiny and by exploring
the guidance the Christian church could offer in solving global problems we are faced with
today, such as nuclear war, ecological collapse and technological disruption. These research
objectives were realised by addressing four questions: (1) does the church have a responsibility
to provide guidance in this regard? (2) What is the nature of the guidance the church ought to
provide? (3) What are the factors hindering the church in providing such guidance? (4) Which
conditions need to be fulfilled for the church to provide meaningful guidance? The answers
provided to these questions were substantiated by drawing on the findings of published
Christian ethical and social scientific research. The conclusion drawn from the article is that
the church could today provide meaningful moral guidance in solving global problems. It
should then, however, depart from an unbiased understanding of the message of the Bible and
effectively deal with certain hindrances preventing it from providing adequate moral guidance.
