Politically engaged spirituality in an emerging global civil society.

Recent developments have made problematic the very character of politics, conceived of as related to the control of power and the exercise of authority. The deeper challenges posed by violence against our habitat and against ourselves seem incapable of generating a reassuring political response. The main expressions of political life such as elections and political parties, and even government itself, seem preoccupied with trivial, short-term concerns and unable to direct attention toward the fundamental challenges of the age. Jean Baudrillard writes that "[a] critique of the poli