Christ and Human Rights: The Transformative Engagement

Human rights is one of the most important geopolitical issues in the modern world. Jesus Christ is the centre of Christianity. Yet there exists almost no analysis of the significance of Christology for human rights. This book focuses on the connections. Examination of rights reveals tensions, ambiguities and conflicts. This book constructs a Christology which centres on a Christ of the vulnerable and the margins. It explores the interface between religion, law, politics and violence, East and West, North and South. The history of the use of sacred texts as 'texts of terror' is examined, and theological links to legal and political dimensions explored. Criteria are developed for action to make an effective difference to human rights enforcement and resolution between cultures and religions on rights.

George Newlands has been Professor of Divinity at the University of Glasgow, UK, since 1986. He was University Lecturer in Divinity, Cambridge, 1973-86, and Fellow and Dean at Trinity Hall Cambridge, 1982-86. He has written ten books including The Transformative Imagination, Ashgate, 2004.