Theology and the Boundary Discourse of Human Rights

Contents

vii Contents u Acknowledgments xi Introduction 1 ChaptER OnE A Dialectical Boundary Discourse: Secular and Religious 7 Are Human Rights Ahistorical? 8 Are Human Rights Universal? 9 A Dialectical Boundary Discourse of Human Flourishing 13 The Charter of the United Nations 16 The Universal Declaration of Human Rights: A Fragile and Negotiated Consensus 17 Human Rights and the Catholic Church since the Second Vatican Council 23 Pope John Paul II and Human Rights 38 The Direction of Pope Benedict XVI? 44 A Crisis of Trust 45 Conclusion 46 ChaptER twO Theological Anthropology and Human Rights: Karl Rahner’s Concentration on the Human 63 Theological Engagement with the Discourse of Human Rights 64 Imago Dei: Indicative and Imperative 69 Karl Rahner: A Concentration on the Human 71 Human Capacity for God: Supernatural Existential 76 viii contents Human Goodness: The “Anonymous Christian” 78 Human Freedom 81 Human Experience and the Experience of God 84 Human Dignity 85 Human Suffering 87 Conclusion 89 ChaptER thREE Human Rights in Time: Realism between Memory and Hope 100 Memory 100 The Ethics of Memory 101 Trials and Truth Commissions: Just Memory? 102 Toward Just Memory: A Guatemalan Case Study 107 Theology toward Just Memory: The Haunted Tardiness of Johann Baptist Metz 114 The Influence of Karl Rahner 115 Political Theology 117 Memory: Dangerous Memory 118 Narrative: Dangerous Stories 122 Solidarity: Dangerous Responsibility 123 Auschwitz: An Interruption That Orients 125 Challenge: A Future Based on the Memory of Suffering 129 Silence and Interruptive Realism 130 Conclusion 132 ChaptER FOuR Liberation Theology and Human Rights: From Interruptive Realism to the Centrality of La Realidad 143 Liberation Theology and Human Rights 146 The Preferential Option for the Poor 151 Who Are the Poor? 153 The Rights of the Poor 157 ix contents A Mysticism of Human Rights 161 From Interruptive Realism to the Centrality of La Realidad 163 The Weight of Reality: Ignacio Ellacuría 164 Conclusion 166 ChaptER FivE Rights-Holders or Beggars? Responding to the Postliberal Critique 178 “Disdain” for the Secular: The Refusal of a Rival 179 A Preference for a Theological Politics over Political Theology 189 Impatience with the Provisional 199 Conclusion 204 Conclusion 215 Select Bibliography 223 About the Author 233 Index 235 This page intentionally left blank ...