Table Of ContentKeeping Faith
with
human Rights
The Moral Traditions Series
Series Editors: David Cloutier, Kristin Heyer, Andrea Vicini, SJ
Founding Editor: James F. Keenan, SJ
selected titles
The Acting Person and Christian Moral Life
Darlene Fozard Weaver
Aquinas on the Emotions: A Religious Ethical Inquiry
Diana Fritz Cates
Catholic Moral Theology in the United States: A History
Charles E. Curran
Creative Conformity: The Feminist Politics of US Catholic and Iranian Shi’i Women
Elizabeth M. Bucar
Defending Probabilism: The Moral Theology of Juan Caramuel
Julia Fleming
Family Ethics: Practices for Christians
Julie Hanlon Rubio
Kinship across Borders: A Christian Ethic of Immigration
Kristin E. Heyer
Loyal Dissent: Memoir of a Catholic Theologian
Charles E. Curran
Moral Evil
Andrew Michael Flescher
Overcoming Our Evil: Human Nature and Spiritual Exercises in Xunzi and Augustine
Aaron Stalnaker
Prophetic and Public: The Social Witness of U.S. Catholicism
Kristin E. Heyer
Sex, Violence, and Justice: Contraception and the Catholic Church
Aline H. Kalbian
The Sexual Person: Toward a Renewed Catholic Anthropology
Todd A. Salzman and Michael G. Lawler
The Social Mission of the US Catholic Church: A Theological Perspective
Charles E. Curran
Theological Bioethics: Participation, Justice, and Change
Lisa Sowle Cahill
Keeping Faith
with
human Rights
Linda hogan
georgetown university press / Washington, DC
© 2015 georgetown university press. all rights reserved. no part of this book may be
reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including
photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-publication Data
hogan, Linda, 1964– author.
Keeping faith with human rights / Linda hogan.
pages cm
includes bibliographical references and index.
isBn 978-1-62616-232-7 (hc : alk. paper) — isBn 978-1-62616-233-4 (pb : alk. paper) —
isBn 978-1-62616-234-1 (eb) 1. human rights. 2. human rights—philosophy.
3. human rights—Religious aspects—Christianity. 4. human rights—moral and
ethical aspects. i. title.
JC571.h595 2015
323—dc23
2014047104
This book is printed on acid-free paper meeting the requirements of the american
national standard for permanence in paper for printed Library materials.
22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 First printing
printed in the united states of america
Cover by Brad norr Design.
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
introduction 1
1. The Crisis of Legitimacy: political and
philosophical perspectives 12
2. The Crisis of meaning: Theological perspectives 52
3. ethical Formations: Constructing the subject of
human Rights 70
4. Building Discursive Bridges: situated Knowledge, embedded
universalism, plural Foundations 101
5. Resisting Culturalist Frameworks: porous Communities,
Constructed traditions 136
6. Resisting gravity’s pull: Constructing human Rights
through the arts 172
Conclusion 205
Bibliography 211
Index 229
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Acknowledgments
This work has been in gestation for many years, and during that time i
have benefited from conversations with colleagues around the world on
this critical issue of human rights. in particular i am grateful to my great
friend James Keenan (Boston College) who has been a constant source of
inspiration and who has led the way in bringing a global perspective to
theological ethics. i have learned a great deal about the complexities as-
sociated with advancing human rights from colleagues with whom i have
had an ongoing conversation for over a decade, especially antonio au-
tiero (germany), agnes Brazal (philippines), Lúcás Chan Yiu sing (hong
Kong), m. t. Davila (puerto Rico), Kristin heyer (usa), elias Omondi
Opongo (Kenya), agbonkhianmeghe e. Orobator (nigeria), and andrea
Vicini (italy), as well as from colleagues at the school of Religions, peace
studies and Theology at trinity College Dublin.
Thanks are also due to Richard Brown at georgetown university press,
whose generosity and patience are much appreciated, and to patti Bower
and glenn saltzman for their professionalism.
my family and friends continue to be a source of joy and support, as
does my friend and mentor professor enda mcDonagh, to whom this work
is dedicated.
vii
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introduction
human rights represent one of the great civilizing projects of modernity.
From the promulgation in paris in 1948 of the universal Declaration of
human Rights to the subsequent embrace of this declaration by the newly
independent states from africa, asia, and the middle east, human rights
have emerged as the primary discourse of global politics and as an increas-
ingly prominent category in international and domestic legal systems. in
the theological realm, the concept of human rights has all but replaced
its antecedent, that of the natural right, while in the world of Christian
social engagement, the language of human rights has become the lingua
franca of political action. indeed, the un general assembly’s promotion
of the universal Declaration as “a common standard of achievement for all
peoples and all nations” has garnered a remarkable degree of support in the
six decades since its adoption.1
These successes notwithstanding, the category of human rights contin-
ues to be both controversial and contested. philosopher and social reformer
Jeremy Bentham’s infamous dismissal of rights claims as “nonsense upon
stilts” has now been applied to human rights and characterizes the deep
skepticism in contemporary political philosophy regarding the concept.2
ironically, much of this skepticism has come from groups whose predeces-
sors initially deployed the language of rights to claim their positions within
the dominant discourse, that is, citizens of the former colonies, women,
racial minorities, and other dispossessed peoples. today, however, feminist
and postcolonial actors are among the most vocal critics of human rights
1
