44 beyond wishful thinkingsociety? Th e Stoic— to take a form of belief only loosely related to the
connected religious revolutions of the past— could affi rm in his heart
the fundamental similarity of master and slave without defying the in-
stitution of slavery. For him, it might have been enough to show the
other— slave or master— an empathy resulting from the recognition of
their fundamental similarity.
For the votary, however, of any of the religious orientations shaped
by the spiritual revolutions that gave rise to the present world religions,
the question unavoidably arose as to whether this unity could simply
be affi rmed as a thesis or needed to be carried out as a program. As a
thesis, it would require a change of attitude: a diff erent way of perform-
ing within the established roles and arrangements rather than a path to
their reshaping. As a program, it might demand the radical reconstruc-
tion of the established social arrangements.
A fourth shared feature uniting the spiritual innovations that pro-
duced the world religions and the approaches to existence that they
exemplify was their attack on the authority and the ascendancy of a
prevailing ethic: the ethic of heroic virtue, of power worship, of tri-
umph of the strong over the weak, of winning in every worldly contest,
of vindictive reassertion of one’s place with regard to others, of glorious
recognition, renown, and honor, of manly pride. In each of the civili-
zations and states within which these religious orientations arose, this
heroic and martial ethic was associated with a par tic u lar class or
caste— the rulers or fi ghters. Th e link was especially strong within the
structure of the agrarian- bureaucratic empires that formed the most
important setting for the emergence of the world- historical religions.
In addition to being the characteristic ethos of a caste or status group
of warriors and rulers, this moral vision was also associated with young
men. “Disrespect me and I will kill you” was its refrain. Th e struggle for
recognition can easily be translated into a prescriptive conception: into
a view of what makes life most valuable and into an account of the way
in which the moral interests of the ruling caste were bound up with the
practical interests of society.
Th e religions and moralities fashioned by these spiritual innovations
were unanimous in their rejection of this ethos. When they did not de-
nounce it as evil, they nevertheless refused to grant it the primacy that its