Abstract
Although the notion of human rights has been challenged on religious, philosophical and political grounds, human rights has gained a unique and unprecedented prominence in the national and international political discourses of the post-WWII era. This development has not gone unnoticed by churches and theologians, but how human rights should be interpreted from the perspective of the Christian faith and what role they should play in the way Christianity engages with social and political issues, remains disputed. In this chapter, I will examine the foundation, expression and practice of human rights from the perspective of Christian theology.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsNotes
- 1.
Evans [8].
- 2.
Rorty [18].
- 3.
Reed [16, p. 23].
- 4.
Robinson [17, p. 60].
- 5.
Ibid., pp. 60–61.
- 6.
Witte and Christian Green [20, p. 5].
- 7.
Donnelly [7, p. 400].
- 8.
Ibid., p. 401.
- 9.
Ibid.
- 10.
Bucar and Barnett [2, p. 2].
- 11.
- 12.
Witte and Green, ‘Introduction’, in Witte and Green, eds., Religion and Human Right, p. 14.
- 13.
Ibid., p. 17.
- 14.
Ibid., p. 15.
- 15.
Ibid.
- 16.
Ibid., pp. 15–16.
- 17.
Ibid., p. 20.
- 18.
Ibid.
- 19.
Esther D. Reed, The Ethics of Human Rights, p. 8.
- 20.
Ibid., p. 13.
- 21.
Wolterstorff [23, p. 46].
- 22.
Ibid., p. 47.
- 23.
Ibid., p. 49.
- 24.
Reed, The Ethics of Human Rights, p. 16.
- 25.
Wolterstorff [23, p. 52].
- 26.
See also Adeney [1].
- 27.
Wolterstorff, ‘Christianity and Human Rights’, in Witte and Green, eds., Religion and Human Rights, p. 53.
- 28.
Reed, The Ethics of Human Rights, pp. 6–7.
- 29.
Cronin [6].
- 30.
Hollenbach [10].
- 31.
Porter [15].
- 32.
Nurser [14].
- 33.
Reed, The Ethics of Human Rights, p. 17.
- 34.
Ibid., p. 40.
- 35.
Ibid., p. 42.
- 36.
Nordstokke [13, p. 42].
- 37.
Ibid..
- 38.
Collins and Nordstokke [4].
- 39.
Nordstokke, Liberating Diakonia, p. 37.
- 40.
Ibid., p.18.
- 41.
Church of Norway Council [3, p. 5].
- 42.
Lutheran World Federation [12, p. 8].
- 43.
Hans Morten Haugen [9].
- 44.
Ibid., p. 124 (original emphasis).
- 45.
Ibid., p. 136.
- 46.
Ibid., p. 130.
- 47.
Ibid., p. 132.
- 48.
References
Adeney, F. S. (2007). Human rights and responsibilities: Christian perspectives. In F. S. Frances, & A. Sharma (Eds.), Christianity and human rights: Influences and issues (pp. 19–39). New York: State University of New York Press.
Bucar, Elisabeth M., & Barnett, Barbra. (2005). Introduction: The “why” of human rights. In Elisabeth M. Bucar & Barbra Barnett (Eds.), Does human rights need God? (pp. 1–21). Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans.
Church of Norway Council. (2009). Church of Norway plan for diakonia, Oslo: Church of Norway, National Council.
Collins, John N. (1990). Diakonia: Re-interpreting the ancient resources, New York. NY: Oxford University Press.
Collins, J. N. and Nordstokke, K. (2011). Diakonia—theory and praxis. In K. Nordstokke (Ed.), Liberating diakonia (pp. 41–47). Trondheim: Tapir akademisk forlag.
Cronin, K. (1992). Rights and Christian ethics. New Studies in Christian Ethics. Vol. 1, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Donnelly, Jack. (1984). Cultural relativism and universal human rights. Human rights quarterly, 6(4), 400–419.
Evans, T. (1998). Introduction: Power, hegemony and universalization of human rights. In T. Evans (Ed.), Human rights fifty years on: A reappraisal (pp. 1–23). Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Haugen, H. M. (2014). Diakonia as rights-based practice. In S. Dietrich, K. Jorgensen, K. K. Korslien & K. Nordstokke (Eds.), Diakonia as social practice: An introduction (pp. 123–38). Oxford: Regnum.
Hollenbach, D. (2003). The global face of public faith: Politics, human rights, and Christian ethics. Washington, DC: Gorgetown University Press.
Kepel, G. (1994). The revenge of God: The resurgence of Islam, Christianity and Judaism in the modern world. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Lutheran World Federation. (2009). Diakonia in context: Transformation, reconciliation, empowerment. Geneva: The Lutheran World Federation.
Nordstokke, Liberating. (2011). Diakonia. Trondheim: Tapir akademisk forlag.
Nurser, J. (2005). For all peoples and all nations: The ecumenical church and human rights. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press.
Porter, Jean. (2005). Nature as reason: A thomistic theory of the natural law. Cambridge: Eerdmans.
Reed, Esther D. The ethics of human rights: Contested doctrinal and moral issues. Waco, Tex: Baylor University Press, 2007.
Robinson, F. (1998). The limits of a rights-based approach to international Ethics. In T. Evans (Ed.), Human rights fifty years on: A reappraisal (pp. 58–76). Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Rorty, Richard. (1993). Human rights, rationality and sentimentality. In Stephen Shute & Susan Hurley (Eds.), On human rights. New York: Basic Boocs.
Thomas, S. M. (2003). Taking religious and cultural pluralism seriously: The global resurgence of religion and the transformation of international society. In P. Hatzopoulos & F. Petito (Eds.), Religion in international relations: The return from exile (pp. 21–53). New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Witte, J. Jr., & Christian Green, M. (2012). Introduction. In J. Witte Jr. & M. Christian Green (Eds.), Religion and human rights: An introduction (pp. 3–24). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Wolterstorff, Nicholas. (2008). Justice: Rights and wrongs. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press.
Wolterstorff, Nicholas. (2011). Justice in love. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans.
Wolterstorff, N. (2012). Christianity and human rights. In J. Witte Jr. & M. Christian Green (Eds.), Religion and human rights (pp. 42–55). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Fretheim, K. (2020). Christianity and Human Rights: Foundation, Expression and Practice. In: Xie, Z., Kollontai, P., Kim, S. (eds) Human Dignity, Human Rights, and Social Justice. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-5081-2_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-5081-2_11
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-15-5080-5
Online ISBN: 978-981-15-5081-2
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)