Ubuntu

Desmond Tutu writes about the African concept of "ubuntu" in "God Is Not a Christian"(Rider, 2011).  Ubuntu is a concept of sharing and caring,  A bit like the Hebrew word "shalom", most often translated as peace, it is not easily translated into English.  It is a call to community that certainly fits with a Christian perspective.

Tutu writes: "I have gifts that you don't have, and you have gifts that I don't have.  We are different in order to know our need of each other.  To be human is to be dependent.  Ubuntu speaks of spiritual attributes such as generosity, hospitality, compassion, caring, sharing.  You could be affluent in material possessions but still be without ubuntu.  This concept speaks of how people are more important than things, than profits, than material possessions.  It speaks about the intrinsic worth of persons as not dependent on extraneous things such as status, race, creed, gender, or achievement" (p. 22).

There's a lot to think about there and, for most of us, a lot to learn.