Christianity and Human Rights: An Introduction

by Edited by John Witte, Jr , Frank S. Alexander

• ISBN13: 9780521143745
• ISBN10: 0521143748
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-01-31
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Combining Jewish, Greek, and Roman teachings with the radical new teachings of Christ and St. Paul, Christianity helped to cultivate the cardinal ideas of dignity, equality, liberty and democracy that ground the modern human rights paradigm. Christianity also helped shape the law of public, private, penal, and procedural rights that anchor modern legal systems in the West and beyond. This collection of essays explores these Christian contributions to human rights through the perspectives of jurisprudence, theology, philosophy and history, and Christian contributions to the special rights claims of women, children, nature and the environment. The authors also address the church's own problems and failings with maintaining human rights ideals. With contributions from leading scholars, including a foreword by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, this book provides an authoritative treatment of how Christianity shaped human rights in the past, and how Christianity and human rights continue to challenge each other in modern times.

Author Biography

John Witte, Jr. is Jonas Robitscher Professor of Law, Alonzo L. McDonald Family Foundation Distinguished Professor, and Director of the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University. His previous publications include The Sins of the Fathers: The Law and Theology of Illegitimacy Reconsidered (Cambridge, 2009), Christianity and Law: An introduction (with Frank S. Alexander, Cambridge, 2008), The Reformation of Rights: Law, Religion, and Human Rights in Early Modern Calvinism (Cambridge, 2007), and Law and Protestantism: The Legal Teachings of the Lutheran Reformation (Cambridge, 2001). Frank S. Alexander is Sam Nunn Professor of Law and Founding Director of the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University. His previous publications include Georgia Real Estate Finance and Foreclosure Law (5th edition, 2009), and, with John Witte, Jr. The Teachings of Modern Christianity on Law, Politics and Human Nature, 2 volumes (2006) and The Weightier Matters of the Law: Essays on Law and Religion (1988).

Table of Contents

List of contributors	p. ix
Acknowledgements	p. xi
The first word: to be human is to be free	p. 1
Introduction	p. 8
Foundations and Developments of Human Rights	p. 45
The Judaic foundation of rights	p. 47
Ius in Roman law	p. 64
Human rights and early Christianity	p. 81
Human rights in the canon law	p. 99
The modern Catholic Church and human rights: the impact of the Second Vatican Council	p. 113
Rights and liberties in early modern Protestantism: the example of Calvinism	p. 135
Modern Protestant developments in human rights	p. 155
The issue of human rights in Byzantium and the Orthodox Christian tradition	p. 173
Christianity and the Modern Human Rights Framework	p. 191
The human rights system	p. 193
The image of God: rights, reason, and order	p. 216
Religion and equality	p. 236
Proselytism and human rights	p. 253
Religious liberty, church autonomy, and the structure of freedom	p. 267
Christianity and the rights of children: an integrative view	p. 283
Christianity and the rights of women	p. 302
Christianity, human rights, and a theology that touches the ground	p. 320
A right to clean water	p. 335
The final word: can Christianity contribute to a global civil religion?	p. 351
Biblical index	p. 367
Index	p. 370
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