Theological Reflections on Human Rights

Alan D. Falconer

Introduction:

In his poem The Refugee, penned during the second World War, the Scots poet, Edwin Muir, reflects on the situation and records his reactions to the inhumanity prevalent in his world. The poet considers his own participation in the inhuman treatment being directed against his fellow human beings, and suggests why it is imperative that such inhumanity be subject for reflection and action. As this is the very subject of our own conference here let me begin by reading from this poem.

"We saw the homeless waiting in the street , year after year. The always homeless, nationless and nameless. To whose bare roof - trees never come, peace and the house martin to make a home.

We did not fear a wrong so dull and old, so patiently told and patiently retold, while we sat by the fire or in the window - seat.

Oh what these suffered in dumb animal patience, that we now suffer, while the world's brow grows darker and the world's hand rougher.

We bear the lot of nations, of times and races, because we watched the wrong last too long with non-committal faces"(1)

There is a great deal in this poem which would provide food for reflection(2). The poet is stressing that the problem of inhumanity arises out of our activity and, equally as important, out of our inactivity. Such a situation as that described is not just a denial of the humanity of others, but also a denial of our own humanity. In turn this leads to a total impoverishment of understanding of what it means to be human. Edwin Muir, however, is not merely engaging in a work of description or analysis. He ends the poem with a plea - a plea we do well to heed.

"For deaf and blind is rejection bred by rejection, breeding rejection, and where no counsel is what will be will be. We must shape here a new philosophy".

The poet appeals that concern for the welfare of humankind be the subject of refection and action.

Our task in this gathering is to participate in this ongoing reflection and action, particularly as it is manifested in the phenomena of human rights. Our specific task is to reflect theologically on human rights. We are not here to define human rights, nor to examine the mechanisms for the implementation of human rights - even though the latter is undoubtably the most significant feature of the problem of human rights. Our concern is theology and human rights.

During the last decades, the phenomena of human rights have appeared constantly as items on the agenda of Churches throughout the world. In the sphere of practical involvement, violations of human rights have been denounced; causes have been espoused; submissions have been made to individual governments, and to the United Nations and its agencies; and the Churches have encouraged each other to play a more specific and significant role in the affirmation of rights and duties. When viewed in global terms, such involvement is modest. Increasingly, however, the various Churches find themselves engaging these issues.

Concurrent with this practical involvement, attempts have been made to penetrate the rhetoric of human rights and formulate theological perspectives so that the participation of Christians in human rights movements might be the more consistent and mature. The purpose of this paper is to introduce the theological themes which have emerged in these studies so that we can see the wider theological context in which our discussions take place.

Obviously, in an address of this nature, it is not possible to examine every theological study on human rights - even if I were that competent to do that, which I am not! I have therefore decided to limit myself to three major theological studies on human rights(3). Since the three reports which we shall consider emerge from different ecclesiastical and theological traditions, man examination of them will also afford us an opportunity of seeing the relative strengths and weaknesses of contrasting methodologies. The three reports which we shall consider come from the studies of the Pontifical Commission on Justice and Peace; the World Alliance of Reformed Churches; and the Lutheran World Federation. Having outlined these studies, the second part of my address will center on the approach and the theology of human rights. In concluding this paper, I shall then address myself specifically to the question posed "What can one hope to attain by a theological study of human rights?"

The Approach and Emergent Perspectives of the Three Principle Studies on Theology and Human Rights(4)

The Pontifical Commission on Justice and Peace

On the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1973, opportunity was taken by the Pontifical Commission on Justice and Peace to initiate a study on human rights "both as Christians and as human beings"(5). The working paper produced as a result of this reflection, in 1975, is intended to stimulate National Justice and Peace Commissions and other Church groups to create concrete programs for the promotion and defense of human rights. The report itself draws very heavily on the Pastoral Constitution 'Gaudium et Spes'(6), and the Encyclical, 'Pacem in Terris'(7).

Beginning with the affirmation of the inseparability of rights and duties, the report is divided into three major sections. The first section is broadly concerned with theology, the second with pastoral orientations, to the first section. After outlining the history of the relationship between the Roman Catholic Church and human rights, the section concentrates on what it calls the "doctrinal approach". In this approach, the methodology adopted is essentially Thomistic. Thus the report begins by affirming:

"The Teaching of the Magisterium on fundamental human rights is based in the first place or is suggested by the inherent requirements of human nature itself on the level of reason within the sphere of natural law"(8).

The section then goes on to list the fundamental human rights which have been deduced from reason, and which have been affirmed in the teaching of the Magisterium - and here, both civil, political and economic, social and cultural rights are affirmed. With this as the foundation, then, the report goes on to consider the central themes and supporting arguments "on the plane of faith and of specifically Christian outlook". The theological 'loci' which are then examined are the concepts of the Inaceration, Imago Dei, liberation and the Church. Humankind is created in the image of God, and because of this, "everyone has imprinted on his conscience the moral senses which moves him to act according to the laws laid down by the Creator". The Incarceration, the report goes on to stress, reveals man to himself, in that Jesus is the Perfect Man. Jesus is seen to have sanctified all humanity, through his life, death and resurrection, directing humankind to the love of neighbour. The truth revealed by Jesus about humankind are both the foundation of the Church's teaching on human nature, and the impetus for the mission of promoting the 'human' throughout the world. The theme of the Church's mission in the field of human rights is further emphasized by the ecclesiology enunciated in the document viz. The Church is described in terms of being the continuation of the presence of Christ in the world and in history. Since the work of Christ is that of liberation, so the task of the Church is to help liberate humankind, i.e. help humankind to find communion with God and all humanity.

These then are the perspectives which emerge from the 'Justitia and Pax' study. I think that at the Vatican level a new direction in thinking about these themes is discernible in the Encyclical of Pope John Paul II, 'Redemption hominis', but I shall return to this later if I may.

The strength of the approach to the theological study of human rights just outlined is that it is able clearly to affirm the universal nature of human rights, and by its Christology to assert that the Church must by its very nature act in support of these very human rights. Here, in this study, the nature at clearly illumine the content of human rights. The converse, however, is not demonstrated in this study. The Gospel - our understanding of the nature of God and of humankind - is not illumined by human rights. Further, this approach does not seem to be able to account for the historical development in our consciousness of human rights. The relationship between God and humankind appears rather static(9). While the Gospel, then, undoubtedly illumines our understanding of human rights, there has been no development in this approach as to whether human rights can contribute to our understanding of the Gospel.

World Alliance of Reformed Churches

Having examined a natural law approach to the theological study of human rights, we turn now to a Christological approach. The World Alliance of Reformed Churches, has throughout its history been involved in working for human rights and religious liberty throughout the world(10). At its General Assembly at Nairobi in 1970, a theological study - The Theological Basis of Human Rights - was initiated(11). The report which was ensued was accepted at the Centennial Assembly at St. Andrews in 1977. Significant contributors to the study included Jan Lockman, Jurgen Moltman and Daniel Vidal among others. Due to the limitation of time, it is obviously not possible to examine this report in any detail. All one can hope to do is to outline its perspectives. The approach is Christological, having a solid base in biblical studies. The opening paragraph of the report outlines the its presuppositions thus:

"The task of Christian theology is not that of trying to present once more what thousands of experts, lawyers, legislators, and diplomats in the United Nations have already accomplished... On the ground of the creation of man and woman in the image of God, on the ground of the incarnation of God for the reconciliation of the world, and on the ground of the coming of the Kingdom of God as the consummation of history, the concern that is entrusted to Christian theology is one for the humanity of persons as well as for their ongoing rights and duties"(12).

In this study then we are right away presented with similar theological 'loci' to that of the one we have just considered. But there is a greater emphasis on the theme of the Kingdom of God initiated in Christ, and this in fact is decisive. The report itself begins by asserting that human rights are not ground in human nature, but reflect the covenant of God's faithfulness in his people, and the glory of His love for the church. Through this assertion as Daniel Vidal notes in his contribution(13) every human rights approach has a first unique basis in reference in absolute right, a reference to God. Human rights appear as relative to the absolute right of God. They appear in the plural and are qualified, by being something received or given. They are therefore not natural. They are fruits of, and witnesses, to grace. Therefore, no earthly authority can suspend the right and dignity of being human. God's claim on human beings was and is experienced in concrete events of the liberation of human beings, in their covenant with God, and in the rights and duties inherent in their freedom(14). The Covenant, which is the activity of a liberating God with a liberated people, stresses above allo the divine claim upon humankind. It is the same claim upon humankind which is above all expressed in the Image of God concept. In the New Covenant of Jesus, the Church confesses the liberating power of Jesus Christ which leads humankind to freedom. The contribution of Christian theology then, to the theory and practice of human rights, is that of ministering the distinctive wholeness of the Christian Gospel. This theme of liberation is, within the context of the Covenant theology, a dynamic concept which reflects the dynamics of the biblical message and the dynamic concept of God active in history.

The strengths of this study relate both the Gospel and to the study of human rights. This study beginning from this biblical base is able to affirm strongly the universal character of human rights. Such enunciations as human rights are seen as signs of redemption, leading man towards the fulfillment of history - the freedom of humankind. The report goes on to talk in general terms of human rights. While the perspectives are present for relating to the particularity of human rights, these are not developed in this study. Secondly, a direct relation between the activity of God and the phenomenon of human rights is posited. Thirdly, the theme of the kingdom of God, as outlined in the study, helps to point to the relativity of even those rights designated as fundamental, and that is an important contribution to our understanding of the nature of human rights themselves. But I wonder if this study confronts fully enough the rhetoric and reality of human rights, in a way which would br recognizable to those of you involved on the problem of human rights. Does this study help to work with and for those whom Edwin Muir designated as "suffering with dumb animal patience"? I wonder if it engages in dialogue with the phenomena of human rights enough. But despite this important limitation, the study helps us to see the nature of human rights as universal, and as relative. It affirms, further, that human rights are pointers to humankind of the total liberation of humankind by God, and that in itself is a very important theological contribution.

Lutheran World Federation

Having examined a natural law and a Christological approach to human rights, we turn now to a third approach which has been designated as "ideal type" approach, following the use of Max Weber. At the Fifth General Assembly of the Lutheran World Federation at Evian in 1970 the decision to establish a study of the Theological Basis of Human Rights was taken(15). The final report was presented to the Sixth General Assembly at Dar-Es-Salaam in 1977. Significant contributors of this study were Professors Heinz Edouard Todt and Dr. Wolfgang Huber (both of Heidelberg), and Bishop Gunter Krusche of the D.D.R., among others(16).

This report begins by stressing that human rights remind us of human failure and sin, and also of God's concern for human beings. Human rights are a judgement upon the Church. The starting point for human rights is therefore an awareness of human sin. In examining the theological perspectives of human rights, this study tries to understand the structure of human rights particularly as they are enunciated in legislation, though it is clearly stated that human rights relate not only to the sphere of law, but can also be effective when sustained and developed by the ethos of society. This ideal type of analysis leads to the conclusion that human rights are located in three types of rights - freedom, equality and participation. Human rights are a process of humanization for all humankind. By this examination of the legal codification of human rights, the three types of rights then become the basis of theological reflection. Following the Two Kingdom theory so prominent in Lutheran thought, this type of approach is adopted not to try to give theological legitimation to secular concerns, but as an attempt to understand human rights as 'under the worldly regiment of God"(17). Heinz Edouard Todt and Wolfgang Huber describe well the methodology used here in their study:

"This basis is found in existence of an analogy between justice established by God and the legal status which human beings possess or accord to each other in their mutual relationships. For example, from the freedom conferred on man by God, criteria can be derived for the rights of freedom which human beings can and should accord one another. Between the justice established in Christ and the justice which men accept and strive for in shaping their world, there is a connection, a relationship, because this divine justice applies to all creation and to the whole of mankind. Between them there is no identity but there are analogies which are important as signposts"(18).

This methodology is able to affirm the relativity of human rights. By isolating as typed of rights freedom, equality and participation, the report is then able to continue by showing the Christian understanding of freedom as grounded in the gift of Christ for all humankind, a gift which makes all human beings equal, and through which each human being is enabled to participate fully through baptism. There is a sense in which the basic theological locus which is being developed here is that of "justification by faith through Grace". The ecclesiology which is being developed here is thus that the Church is a sigh of that community where freedom, equality and participation receive their highest and fullest expression. Because of this affirmation, the report goes on in fact to give a very impressive treatment of the subject of "human rights within the Church" - a plea that the Church might take this typology seriously within its own institutional life. Because of the love of God, then, Christians engage in society in affirming the rights of all human beings to freedom, equality and participation. The focus of such action is on the rights of others, rather than securing "our rights".

This Lutheran study then by using the ideal type approach is able to grapple with the basic type of human rights and reflect on them. The theological contribution is seen as being that of filling out the meaning of secular human rights. This study is further able to affirm the relativity of human rights. The theological loci which emerge in the study are centered on the Two Kingdoms Theory of the relationship between the world and the Church, and on the doctrine of Justification by Faith Through Grace. This study impressively relates the fact of human sin to the whole problem of human rights. I wonder, however, whether it takes the activity of God in history seriously enough. What do human rights tell us about the nature of God and of humankind? Is God speaking to us through human rights?

These three studies then by using different methodologies are able to stress different theological loci in their attempt to reflect theologically on human rights. Each study has made an important contribution to our theological understanding of human rights, and each has also helped us to face up to aspects of the human nature of human rights.

Since the publications of these studies and at the instigation of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, an ,ecumenical study project on the theological basis of human rights, has been established through the World Council of Churches, but with the sponsoring bodies of the reports we have just examined as the principle contributor. This study is to "deepen the common Christian understanding of the theological basis of human rights"(19). On the basis of the work done in these three studies, a more comprehensive approach to the understanding of human rights and the theological contribution will undoubtedly emerge.

The three studies which we have just examined, all stress the universality of human rights. Obviously, one reason for this is the international character of the sponsoring bodies themselves. I want now to turn briefly to a study which provides a different methodology, and which emphasizes the particularity of human rights.

Theological Reflection of Human Rights(20)

In 1977 the Irish School of Ecumenic decided to launch a study on the theology of Human rights to mark the 13th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and to make a contribution to a problem which exercises the minds of many people in Ireland(21). The approach adopted by this study might be termed "phenomenological". By that I mean to convey that the study takes as its starting point the phenomena of Human rights - the laws and bills of rights, the cries of those who feel their rights have been denied, the role of Human rights in our society, and so on. The phenomena of Human rights are related to the specific and the particular situation of those whom Edward Muir described as "suffering in dumb animal patience".

Such an approach makes a number of theological presuppositions, which I would like to outline, because there seems to be convergence here with what I suggested was a new direction on the Theology of Human Rights which is heralded for the Roman Catholic Church in the Encyclical Letter by Pope John Paul II Redemptor Hominis(22). These presuppositions may be characterized under the general heading "theology of the wayfarers" to borrow the phrase of the seventeenth century Swiss Reformed theologian, Johannes Wollebius(23). Such a theology is conducted from within the Christian Community and is primarily the attempt to understand humankind and the nature of God. The life of the Christian community is centered on the event of Jesus Christ(24) and understands this event to be the fulfilment of history. The theology of the wayfarers emphasizes the provincial nature of our understanding of God(25). Thus the task of theology is continually to seek to understand God and to understand humankind also. Since, for the Christian tradition, God has revealed himself in history, then Human history provides the appropriate locus for seeking to know God and the nature of humankind.

With these presuppositions, then, the study began with an attempt to locate the nature of Human rights, or at least to locate the area of Human experience out of which the need for Human rights arises. Human rights seem to arise due to the fact of conflict in society, where an individual or group feel themselves to be alienated and unable to affirm their humanity. The phenomena of conflict or alienation provides the matrix out of which the struggles for Human rights arises. In the purportedly perfect society, there is no place for the concept of Human rights, as the need for it does not arise. Such a perfect society, however, does not exist(26).

In an attempt to analyze the nature of conflict, the work of Rollo May, the American psychotherapist, proved helpful. In his book Power and Innocence, May argues that:

"A great deal of Human life can be seen as conflict between power on one side (ie. effective ways of influencing others, achieving the sense in interpersonal relations of the significance of one's self) and the powerlessness of others"(27).

May posits five levels of power present as potentialities in every Human being's life, and he then goes on to outline those uses of power which when exercised by other Human beings can either stifle or aid the individual's sense of worth. The effect of stifling other Human beings is achieved by an exploitive, manipulative, or competitive use of power. By the use of any of these modes of power, Human beings in their desire to assert their own self-significance, and those of their values, opinion, lifestyle and feelings do so in such a way that the significance of another person in the encounter is diminished or demeaned. Power, however, can also be used to enable another Human being to come to a sense of his own worth. The two modes of power which have this effect, May calls "nutrient" (power exercised for the other person) and "integrative" (power with the other person). Although the above analysis has been described in the terms of the relationship of one person to another, May emphasizes that this problem also occurs in the relationship of the individual to a group or society. Similarly, corporate consciousness is also affirmed in that analysis.

Human rights emerge as the attempt to regulate the conflict between Human beings or groups of Human beings in such a way as to protect the individual ro group and also to enable the group or the individual to grow to maturity. Human rights, therefore, reflect and engage the two effects of conflict - the destructive and the constructive. It seems to me therefore that this examination of conflict as the root of the problem addressed by Human rights, is a prior stage to the quest for freedom, equality and participation. These "ideal types" make sense really only because the conflict situation inherent in humankind. As one examines the literature of Human rights it becomes clear that in the first place the concept of protection underlies the appeal to a Constitution, Bill of Rights or International Convention. Thus in the Canadian Bill of Rights Act for the Recognition and Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of 1960 the language of protection is dominant in the second section of the Act, and even the positively stated "fundamental" rights such as the right to life, liberty, etc. foresees the possibility of a conflict where some individual, group or state might make an attempt to act in such a way that power be exercised against the individual. Similarly, in the Canadian Human Rights Act of 1977 the impressive section on computers is designed to protect people from a situation where incorrect information may be used to the detriment of the individual.

Conflict, however, can also be constructive or creative. It is through the fact of specific conflicts that new rights have been enunciated. For example, in the International sphere, conflict between the interests and aspirations of nations led to the general acceptance of the "right" to self-determination(28). In the area of social and economic rights what is being encouraged are the conditions deemed necessary so that humanity might be enabled to become Human. Often power has been exercised in such a way that these very conditions have been available to everyone. The social and economic rights, in particular, are an attempt to use power in what Rolls May called a "nutrient" mode. The whole discussion of Human responsibilities, i.e a discussion of the nutrient exercise of power. How may we enable other Human beings to achieve their own humanity?

With this basic analysis of Human rights completed, what does this disclose about the nature of God and of humankind? The very fact of Human rights is indicative of the radical nature and scope of the alienation between Human beings and groups of Human beings. As Human beings we exploit, manipulate and assert our own self significance at the expense of others, sometimes we may indeed have, as Edward Muir put it "...watched the wrong last too long with non-committal faces".

Human rights point me to my own sin as an individual(29) and also to the sin and alienation in society - what might be deemed "corporate sin"(30) - a notion which has been well developed by Gregory Baum among others. Human rights are also a judgement, not only on me as an individual, or on our societies but also on the Church(31).

If then our study of Human rights leads us to a stronger awareness of our own and institutional sin, do we learn anything about God through this very situation of conflict? In the Judea-Christian tradition, the revelation of God is primarily described in terms of disclosure through specific events in history(32). In his analysis of the Old and New Testament, the French theologian, Andre Dumas(33)sees a recurrent pattern of conflict in the events through which God is revealed. In such events, God appears as the "Disturber" or the "praesentia explosiva"(34)

. In the New Testament particularly, this activity of God is described by the term "skandalon". Jesus provokes conflict by breaking through the barriers constructed by society to preserve its own understanding of what it meant to be Human(35). By provoking this conflict, Jesus is attempting to get us to widen our definitions to be more inclusive - to revise our previously held convictions. This activity is of course destructive of our previous values and ideas, but it is also creative in that a new definition begins to emerge. David Jenkins elaborates on this theme:

"This hope of creative change through conflict and of discovering that threats to our present identities and self-understandings can become promises of something larger, deeper and more Human is a hope derived from our Christian faith. For our faith and hope is in the God whose Spirit is at work after the pattern shown us in Jesus Christ. Thus we know that we can give what we have, that is ourselves however sinful and limited, to the task which is also a struggle and a conflict of helping one another to be more Human in every and any area of Human activity in which we are involved"(36).

Our involvement with Human beings then involves the discernment of the conflict which is provoked by the activity of God in such a way that our understanding of the nature of humankind is enlarged. It seems to me that the distinguished citizen of this city of Fredericton, Sir Charles Roberts, expressed this well in his poem "The Aim". You will remember the last stanza of the poem reads:

Neither my body nor my soul
To earth's low ease will yield consent
I praise thee for my will to strive
I bless Thy goal of discontent(37)

God reveals himself through Human rights movements as the "goal of discontent". This God is precisely a "disturber" because of the mode of power which he exercises. The whole life and death of Jesus Christ is described as a life of "self-emptying" - of kenosis(38) - a life where power is exercised in an integrative way. That is, Jesus stands alongside Human beings in their very particularity and enables them to exercise power on their own behalf.

This phenomenological approach to the theology of Human rights, then, has enabled us to see the area of Human life which the rhetoric and the reality of Human rights addresses viz. the question of conflict and power. The theological reflection on this reality leads us to a greater awareness of the nature of sin and alienation and to an awareness of the activity of God as the "praesentia explosiva". God is a scandal to our own activity precisely because of the way he exercises power on behalf of and with the powerless, and to affirm the use of power in such a way that the humanity of all is affirmed - thus the Christian must not eschew power but must seek ways of activating power in a kenotic manner.

As with other methodologies adopted in the attempt to relate theology and Human rights, this approach also has its limitations, chief among which is the fact that it does not account for the universality of Human rights.

What can we hope to attain by a theological study of Human rights?

In concluding this address let me draw the threads of the paper together in the attempt to answer the question. The answer which may be appropriate now would have seemed a little facetious at the beginning of the paper, viz. everything depends on the method one uses to approach both theology and Human rights. We have seen the various theological loci which have emerged in the various studies. All of these have tended to emphasize Christology, in one way or another. Some have used "natural law" affirmation, others Justification, the Covenant or God active in history. The studies have also affirmed the importance of the theology of sin and reconciliation as important in the context of Human rights.

I do think, however, that by approaching Human rights from theology one is enabled to come to an appreciation of at least the underlying problem of Human rights in a way which is important for the understanding of Human rights. The question of Human rights is not solely a legal question. The contribution which theology can make to Human rights is to help us understand in a sharper way what Human rights are and to which area of Human activity they relate. Conversely, Human rights can help theology to focus more clearly on the central affirmation of the Christian faith, they help us to clarify our understanding of the nature of God and of humankind.

By trying to relate theology to Human rights we are also participating in the plea expressed so well in Edward Muir's poem - to shape a new philosophy, a philosophy which empowers people to become Human and to share their humanity will all. To put it another way, the very examination which we are about to conduct enables one to glimpse a view of the unity of humankind, which impels concrete action so that the vision might be implemented. The theological study of Human rights further leads us to the position where we can see that if we are to be faithful to the Gospel as individuals and as Churches then we must act for and with Human beings in society in such a way that together we construct a more Human society - a society where humanity is taken seriously.

All of these may seem rather attainment. In fact, they are radical in scope as they posit a community which is geared and structured to the service of humankind. As we begin our dialogue here in Fredericton, may our understanding of the Gospel be enlarged, and our commitment to our fellow Human beings extended.

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Footnotes:

1. Edwin Muir collected Poems London, Faber and Faber, 1960, p.95f.

2. e.g. the theme "boomerang" of reflection, of Jean-Paul Sarte's phrase "the boomerang of violence", which neatly characterizes the theme of Franz Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth, pre-face Jean-Paul Sartre trans. Constance Farrington Hardmondsworth, Penguin 1967.

3. For a more comprehensive account of the various studies undertaken in the last decade, see my article "The Churches and Human Rights" in One in Christ, 13(4)77, pp. 321-359.

4. In the examination of these three reports, I shall be making a number of assumption about which there is no possibility of entering discussion in this paper. The most important assumption is that it is appropriate that Christians be involved in matters affecting society and its structures. I have to some extent dealth with this theme in my article "The Christian and Human Rights" in Doctrine and Life, 29(2) 78, pp77-92.

5. Pontifical Commission "Justitia et Pax", The Church and Human Rights, Working Paper no. 1, Vatican City, 1975, p.5.

6. Text in Austin Flannery (ed) Vatican Council II: The Conciliar and Post Conciliar Documents, Dublin, Dominican Publications, 1975, pp. 903-1014.

7. Text in David O'Brien and Thomas Shannon (eds) Renewing the Earth: Catholic Documents on Peace, Justice and Liberation, New York, Image Books, 1977, pp.117-170.

8. Pontifical Commission, 'Justitia et Pax', op. cit. p.21.

9. This point is stressed in particular by Jan Lo0chman and Jurgen Moltmann in their contribuation in Allen O. Miller(ed) A Christian Declaration on Human Rights: Theological Studies of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, Grand rapids, Eerdmans, 1977.

10. See Marcel Pradervand, A Century of Service: A History of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, 1975, Edinburgh, St. Andrews Press, 1975.

11. For the background to this study, see my article "The Churches and Human Rights", op.cit. p.331.

12. Allen O. Miller (ed) op.cit. p.144.

13. Ibid, p.41.

14. Jurgen Moltmann, ibid. p. 132.

15. For the back ground to this decision see article "The Churches and Human Rights", op.cit. p.327f.

16. See Wolfgang Huber and Heinz Eduard Todt Menschenrechte: Perspektiven einer mensclichen Welt Stuggart, Kreuz Verlag 1977. Also Jorgen Lissner and Arne Sovik (eds) A Lutheran Reader on Human Rights - Lutheran Report - Geneva, LWF 1978, also Lutheran World 24(1) 77.

17. LWF Theological Perspectives, op.cit. p. 13.

18. Extract from Todt and Huber in Lissner and Socil, op. cit., p.95.

19. Churches Commission on International Affairs XXXIII Meeting - Sub Committee on Human Rights, 1978, Appendix III, Memorandum of 12th April 1978 - cyclostyled.

20. This study was published along with all the international consultation on human rights papers by the Irish School of Ecumenics, Dublin, 1980.

21. For the background to this study, see my article "Human Rights Project 1978", Irish School of Ecumenics in Doctrine and Life, 29(1) 78, pp 42-46.

22. London, Catholic Truth Society 1979.

23. Johannes Wollebius, Compendium Theologiae Christianae, Basel 1646 ed. and trans. by John Neardslee III Reformed Dogmatics, Seventeenth Century Reformed Theology through the Writings of Wollebius Voetius and Turretin Grand Rapids, Baker Book House, 1977, p.29.

24. Ernst Fuchs has described this attempt of the Christian community to centre its life and self-understanding in Jesus Christ as "standing in the event" - quoted in Ronald Gregor Smith, The Doctrine of God, Gladsgow, Collins, 1970, p.32.

25. of. the Cappadocean Fathers, esp. St. Gregory Naziansen on the "incomprehensibility" of God.

26. This is emphasized by K.R. Minoque in Eugene Kamenka and Alice Erh - Soon Tay (ed) Human Rights, London, Edward Arnold, 1978, p.15.

27. Rollo May, Power and Innocence, A search for the Sources of Violence, Glasgow, Collins Fontant 1976.

28. See Kadar Asmal, "Apartheid South Africa: The Illegitimate Regime", Paper to the U.N. Lagos Conference, 1977.

29. of. my own article, "The Christian and human Rights", op. cit. - esp. the reference to Sir Michael Tippet's Child of Our Time.

30. Gregory Baum, Religion and Alienation, A Theological Reading of Sociology, New York, Paulist, 1975.

31. See David Jenkins, The Contradiction of Christianity, London, SCM, 1976, p.9.

32. Edmund Jacob, Theology of the Old Testament, trans. A.W. Heathcote and P. Allock, London, Hodder and Huaghton, 1958, cf. Wolfhart Pannenberg (ed) Revelation as History, trans. David Granskou, London, MacMillan, 1968, esp. pp.123-158.

33. Andre Dumas, Political Theology and the Life of the Church, trans. John Bowden, London, SCM, 1978, esp. chapters 2 and 4.

34. David Jenkins points to this without elucidating it in The Human Studies 1969-75, Geneva, World Council of Churches, 1975, p. 72. See also Jurgen Molman, The Crucified God, trans. R.A. Wilson and John Bowden, London, SCM, 1974, p.338. Also Dorothy Solie, Revolutionary Patience, trans. Rita and Robert Kimber Maryknoll (New York) Orbis 1977, p.22.

35. See Edna McDonagh, "The Judgement Scandal", in Concilium, 7, 1977 (Canon Law), p.89.

36. David Jenkins, The Contradictions of Christianity, op.cit., p. 53.

37. In Ralph Gustafson (ed) The Penguin Book of Canadian Verse, Harmondsworth, Penguin 1967, p.71f.

38. Philippians, Ch.2, vv 5-11.

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© 2007 Atlantic Human Rights Centre, St. Thomas University