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A Human Rights 'Soul' for a Secular World of 'Faiths': A Contradiction, or Just a Paradox?
Abstract
The critically important role of groups associated with the infant World Council
of Churches in the process of introducing ‘human rights’ into the post-World
War II international order, and then helping to define them in the Universal
Declaration (1948), has been forgotten. It was asserted in those years that (at any
rate Christian) faith is properly concerned with the inter-dependence of healthy
religion and religiously neutral human-rights institutions. The principle was
advanced, not only by Christians, that this conviction could be held in good
conscience by any of the world-faiths. To open educational windows would
increase knowledge of the beliefs of ‘the other’, and foster both self-criticism and
mutual respect. This vision has been only very partially realised. Now, many
difficult public issues spring from claims made by religious traditions, and many
religious groups have rejected ‘universal’ human rights as a threat. This paper
argues that the mutuality of religious faith and human rights needs to be reenterprised
urgently—and not only by elites—for the health of both and for the
sake of containing violence. This is not a responsibility to which political
authority—however religiously neutral—can or should remain indifferent.
of Churches in the process of introducing ‘human rights’ into the post-World
War II international order, and then helping to define them in the Universal
Declaration (1948), has been forgotten. It was asserted in those years that (at any
rate Christian) faith is properly concerned with the inter-dependence of healthy
religion and religiously neutral human-rights institutions. The principle was
advanced, not only by Christians, that this conviction could be held in good
conscience by any of the world-faiths. To open educational windows would
increase knowledge of the beliefs of ‘the other’, and foster both self-criticism and
mutual respect. This vision has been only very partially realised. Now, many
difficult public issues spring from claims made by religious traditions, and many
religious groups have rejected ‘universal’ human rights as a threat. This paper
argues that the mutuality of religious faith and human rights needs to be reenterprised
urgently—and not only by elites—for the health of both and for the
sake of containing violence. This is not a responsibility to which political
authority—however religiously neutral—can or should remain indifferent.