Presenter/Author Information

Matthew Bagot, Spring Hill CollegeFollow

Start Date

11-10-2017 8:30 AM

Keywords

Catholic Social Teaching, Islam, Hollenbach, Soroush.

Abstract

At the beginning of The Global Face of Public Faith, David Hollenbach, S.J., challenges the world’s religious communities to relate their distinctive visions of the good human life with the growing awareness that all persons are linked in a web of global interdependence. Hollenbach’s work is founded on an understanding of the common good that he discerns at Vatican II and calls “dialogic universalism.” It is universal because humans are sufficiently alike when it comes to the requirements for their respective goods; it is dialogic because cultural differences necessitate deep intellectual engagement across traditions if they are to be bridged.

In this paper, I hope to engage in “dialogic universalism” by exploring the confluence between Catholic and Islamic approaches to human rights. The paper is part of a broad project in comparative ethics.

The Catholic approach to human rights is premised on the dignity of the person. But the “person” here is conceived, crucially, as a social creature. Thus Hollenbach writes: “Catholic thought and action in the human rights sphere ... are rooted in a communitarian alternative to liberal human rights theory.” This alternative conception defines human rights as “the minimum conditions for life in community,” which is premised not only on the relational nature of the person (created in the image and likeness of a Trinitarian God), but also on a conception of justice as participation in the life of the human community for all persons. Consequently, rights are conceived not simply as negative immunities but more broadly as positive empowerments.

I will argue that this vision of empowering all citizens to participate in communal life is replicated in the work of Iranian Shi’ite scholar Abdolkarim Soroush, for whom rights imply duties to others and thus the pursuit of social and economic justice in a democratic context.

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Nov 10th, 8:30 AM

The Dignity of the Human Person: Catholic and Islamic Approaches to Human Rights

At the beginning of The Global Face of Public Faith, David Hollenbach, S.J., challenges the world’s religious communities to relate their distinctive visions of the good human life with the growing awareness that all persons are linked in a web of global interdependence. Hollenbach’s work is founded on an understanding of the common good that he discerns at Vatican II and calls “dialogic universalism.” It is universal because humans are sufficiently alike when it comes to the requirements for their respective goods; it is dialogic because cultural differences necessitate deep intellectual engagement across traditions if they are to be bridged.

In this paper, I hope to engage in “dialogic universalism” by exploring the confluence between Catholic and Islamic approaches to human rights. The paper is part of a broad project in comparative ethics.

The Catholic approach to human rights is premised on the dignity of the person. But the “person” here is conceived, crucially, as a social creature. Thus Hollenbach writes: “Catholic thought and action in the human rights sphere ... are rooted in a communitarian alternative to liberal human rights theory.” This alternative conception defines human rights as “the minimum conditions for life in community,” which is premised not only on the relational nature of the person (created in the image and likeness of a Trinitarian God), but also on a conception of justice as participation in the life of the human community for all persons. Consequently, rights are conceived not simply as negative immunities but more broadly as positive empowerments.

I will argue that this vision of empowering all citizens to participate in communal life is replicated in the work of Iranian Shi’ite scholar Abdolkarim Soroush, for whom rights imply duties to others and thus the pursuit of social and economic justice in a democratic context.