Culture Quote of the Day - towards a "meta-ethic"

"And if there is ever to be a 'meta-ethic' (Barnlund 1979) that can restrain the worst excesses of cultural value conflict and guide respectful dialogue, it must come from those whose allegiance is only to life itself."

Milton Bennett, "Towards Ethnorelativism"

For the most part, I like Bennett's model, and think it is full of insight into the process of experiencing cultural difference. At some points, though, I find his worldview falling short. Like in this quote. Bennett is limited by his apparently "secular" worldview, seeing nothing beyond the human, the cultural, dimension.

Developing a "meta-ethic" (i.e., one relevant to people of different cultures) by having an allegiance "only to life itself"? What does this mean? I don't think Bennett knows. This sounds nice, but it seems empty (to me).

To develop a "meta-ethic," applicable across cultures, we're talking about having an ethical framework that people of different cultures can agree to. This means finding something shared, "universal." 

I would find this "meta-ethic" rooted in Jesus. Jesus, in fact, presented himself as "life itself" ("I am the bread of life"; "I am the resurrection and the life"; "I have come that you may have life"; "the person who has the Son, has life"). 

Could Jesus be the source of the "meta-ethic" Bennett refers to? Not the "Christian" Jesus or the "Muslim" Jesus (and are there others?), but the Jesus of history, of the New Testament?

I have found that Muslims and Buddhists and unchurched people, and others (and E. Stanley Jones would say, Indian Hindus), are interested in, fascinated by, the person, life, teachings of Jesus - as long as they can meet him unencumbered by a particular group's way of "packaging" him. Jesus, as a historical figure, you could say, a historical reality, is not a product of human culture (though our images, our "packaging" of him, is, to one degree or another). And if Jesus is who the New Testament presents him as, and who Christians through the past 2000 years have understood he is, the Incarnate Word of God, one with the Father, the source of life, then he certainly exists outside of (as well as within) human sociocultural contexts.

Can we construct a "meta-ethic" that peoples of different cultures agree to? I don't know, the challenge seems daunting. But in my mind (and experience), we'd have a better chance starting with Jesus, than starting in a secular vacuum.