Joerg Rieger, Distinguished Professor of Theology and Cal Turner Chancellorās Professor of Wesleyan Studies at 91ĢĘ²®»¢ Divinity School, has been busy.
Heās spent much of 2025 trotting from continent to continentāEurope, Africa, Asia and Australia, to name a fewāand from university to university, spreading the word about his research on global solidarity in response to ecological challenges and economic development.
Riegerās work raises the question: What shared commitment might bind us all together, and can it be leveraged for the good of humanity?
As a theologian, he looks to ancient religious traditions for solutions.
Religion, power and the common good
āWhat Iām interested in, broadly conceived, is religion and power,ā Rieger said. āReligion can be a force for the good in the world and also a force for the bad. What Iām trying to investigate are the problems with religion in order to find some of the solutions.ā
One problem heās uncovered is something he refers to as false solidaritiesāefforts to bring people together that ultimately do more harm than good.
āAt a time when we need global solidarity to be better off as human beings, we are finding all these false efforts at producing solidarity, but the people involved are not benefiting,ā Rieger said.
āWith nationalism, youāre not using it for the whole nation; youāre using it for the people at the top who are running the nation. Iām arguing that religion gets used this way also. Take missionariesāwho were deeply involved in colonialismāthe wrinkle here is these missionaries oftentimes didnāt benefit a whole lot from colonialism.
āIf you look at Africa, for instance, many missionaries died of malaria. They didnāt become rich or powerful. There are exceptions, but those on the ground usually didnāt benefit from the colonial systems they supported.ā
āI sometimes call this āunite and conquer,āā Rieger said. āYouāre uniting people, but youāre doing so in order to conquer them.ā
Exploring solidarity through religious and social perspectives
So what counters false solidarity? Deep solidarity, which Rieger describes as a connection rooted in the shared pressures that make life challenging for everyone.
āIf the question is the common good, or the flourishing of humanity, then the common challenge is that everybody needs to make a contribution,ā Rieger said. āAnd of course, my response here comes back to religion and theology.ā
āFor many people of faith, solidarity is mostly a moral commandmentāyou must love your neighbor, and thatās just the way it is. But that solution is not strong enough. It isnāt getting us where we need to go.ā
Instead, Rieger points to a deeper interpretation: that you and your neighbor are connected.
āThatās the basis of deep solidarityālove your neighbor as yourself. Whatās happening to somebody else is happening to me. And that does not demand sameness,ā Rieger said.
āIf Christians and Muslims recognize that we are all affected by global warming, all they need to do is to say, āIām using my Christian resources and youāre using your Muslim resourcesāfor the same cause.āā
Rieger, who grew up in Germany, is finding that his message is resonating across cultures and communities.
āWhatās interesting is that people are really responding to it,ā he said. āI mean, here I come as a white European American from 91ĢĘ²®»¢ Universityāwhy should people listen, right? Thereās a lot of suspicion when you talk to an Indigenous community, for example, in Fiji,ā Rieger said.
āBut at the same time, people understand this in their own histories and stories. Fijians understand not only the need for solidarity, but that there are different ways to build it.ā
Building the solidarity economy
In addition to taking the solidarity project around the world, Rieger, director of the Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice, is putting his research into action.
Through Solidarity Circles, a leadership training program for clergy, faith leaders and organizers set on creating and sustaining social change, Rieger and his team collaborate with about 300 faith communities on initiatives ranging from ecological stewardship to economic empowerment.
And a recent $300,000 grant from the 91ĢĘ²®»¢ Center for Sustainability, Energy and Climate has given the program more resources to support community-based projects involving climate action.
āOur response to the ecological crisis is putting faith communities all over the U.S.āand a couple of international places tooātogether with climate adaptation or resilience efforts,ā Rieger said. āThis is one of the pillars for the VSEC grant. Weāre basically encouraging solidarity through shared action.ā
When asked how the work is progressing, Rieger is optimistic.
āIām really excited about this work because I think something bigger than me is happening,ā he said. āOn the one hand, we do popular education. On the other, we do academic research. My research is stronger when Iām involved on the ground, and I have more meaningful things to say on the ground when Iāve done my homework.ā
āWhat I can do is run with it,ā he added. āHelp people see it more clearlyāand help them build around it.ā
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