Religion & Law

John Witte and Frank Alexander are the editors of (yet another!) helpful and interesting collection of essays -- this one, just out from Cambridge University Press, is on "Christianity and Human Rights."  (I contributed a chapter on religious liberty and church autonomy, but -- don't worry! -- the book includes chapters by others whose work MOJ readers will actually want to read, including Kent Greenawalt, Jeremy Waldron, and Nick Wolterstorff). Here's the description of the book:

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.