Reimagining Human Rights
 192 pp., 6 x 9 Hardcover ISBN: 9781647120344 (1647120349) 192 pp., 6 x 9 Paperback ISBN: 9781647120351 (1647120357) January 2021 Moral Traditions series EXPLORE THIS TITLE DescriptionTable of Contents Reviews |
Reimagining Human Rights
Religion and the Common Good
An interpretation of human rights that centers on the rhetorical—and religious—power of testimony.
Jeremy Bentham described the idea of human rights as "rhetorical nonsense." In Reimagining Human Rights, William O'Neill shows that the rhetorical aspect of human rights is in fact crucial. By examining how victims and their advocates embrace the rhetoric of human rights to tell their stories, he presents an interpretation of human rights "from below," showing what victims of atrocity and advocates do with rights. Drawing on African writings that center around victims' stories—including Desmond Tutu's on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission—and modern Roman Catholic social teaching, O'Neill reconciles the false dichotomy between the individualistic perspective of the human rights theories of Immanuel Kant, Jürgen Habermas, and John Rawls and local or ethnocentric conceptions of the common good in Alasdair MacIntyre and Richard Rorty. He shows that the testimony of victims leads us to a new conception of the common good, based on rights as narrative grammar—that is, rights are not only a grammar of dissent against atrocity but let new stories be told. O'Neill shows how the rhetoric of human rights can dismantle old narratives of power and advance new ones, reconstructing victim's claims, often in a religious key, along the way. He then applies this new approach to three areas: race and mass incarceration in the United States, the politics of immigration and refugee policy, and ecological responsibility and our duties to the next generation. William O'Neill, SJ, is a professor emeritus of social ethics at the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University. He held the Jesuit Chair at Georgetown University from 2003-04 and has served on the editorial board of the Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics and the board of directors of Theological Studies. He is the author of numerous articles on moral theology and ethics and The Ethics of Our Climate: Hermeneutics and Ethical Theory (Georgetown University Press, 1994). He is currently serving as a member of the Mission and Identity Task Force for the Jesuit Refugee Service, stationed in Nairobi, Kenya. David Cloutier, Darlene Weaver, and Andrea Vicini, SJ
Reviews
"With this book William O'Neill presents an original and compelling reimagining of human rights. He reverses the hermeneutical flow so as to rethink human rights as the grammar of dissent and in so doing opens an exciting and challenging new seam of enquiry about our obligations to each other in a pluralist and global context."—Linda Hogan, professor of ecumenics, Trinity College Dublin "It is when we recognize the stories of the victims that we begin to speak of human rights, responsibilities, and social transformation. . . . O'Neill's reminder that human rights, religion, and the common good are intrinsically linked to the safeguarding of human dignity is key to deepening our common human experience."—Elias O. Opongo, SJ, director of the Centre for Research, Training and Publications, Hekima Institute of Peace Studies and International Relations (HIPSIR), Hekima University College, Nairobi, Kenya Table of Contents Preface Introduction One: Interpreting Rights I. A Genealogy of Difference II. The Rhetoric of Rights III. Conclusions Two: Justifying Rights I. The Interpretation of Ethics: Semantic Recognition II. The Interpretation of Ethics: Epistemic Recognition III. The Ethics of Interpretation: Respect IV. Ethical Reciprocity V. The Grammar of Rights VI. Aristotelian Constructivism: Autonomy and Solidarity V. Conclusions Three: Rights and Religion I. The Ethics of Public Discourse II. Re-enchanting the Public Sphere III. The Surplus of Religious Meaning: The Theological Virtues IV. Conclusions: On Forgiveness after Mass Atrocity Four: Applying Human Rights I. Comparative Assessments II. Realizations: Concrete Applications: Race and Mass Incarceration, Migration and Refugee Policy, Ecological Responsibility Conclusion Bibliography About the Author |