Annotation
RET5058 Theological Ethics Seminar - Human Rights and the Global Ethic.
The first part of the course examines the reasons for the theological legitimacy of human rights. We will research G. Jellinek’s and J.Witte’s statement that the religion is the mother of the HRs. Our course provides an overview of the historical development of human rights in Euro-American culture. We examine arguments for and against the project of the HRs. What is the opposite of this project? The opposite project is the philosophical project of the virtues with ancient roots (Greek – Grecian philosophy) We will examine and interpret the basic international documents, including the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and articles written by M.L.King, J.Sacks, T. Snyder, B. Komárková, J.Witte, C.Butler, S.Levitsky, D.Ziblatt. (Democracy and human rights; authoritarianism and exploitation of human rights; tasks of Christians; just and unjust law; segregation, discrimination; internet and propaganda campaigns; citizen and responsibility; the asylum right; minority rights; secularisation and Europe; religious rights).We will examine the religious rights – Georg Jellinek,(apodictic law, casuistic law, subjective law etc.) and we will examine Biblical roots of religious rights, we focus on the constitution of ancient Israel - it means we focus on the Biblical Book of the Covenant (Ex 20,22-23,33), including Ten commandments.
The second part of the course provides a general introduction to the development of Küng’s thinking about ecumenical theology, extended to include interreligious dialogue.
The course will give an overview of the terminology which is essential in order to understand the global ethic, including ethical standards and strategies to apply it. In discussing these themes relating to the global ethic, based on texts taken from books written by Küng, we will explore how religions, human rights, and human responsibilities are brought into symbiosis. This will be observed and assessed with reference to Küng’s 3 key statements:
There will be no peace between the civilizations without peace between the religions.
There will be no peace between the religions without a dialogue between the religions.
There will be no new world order without a new world ethic (a planetary ethic).
Recommended Literature: Human and Religious Rights:
Shepherd, F.M. (ed.), Christianity and human rights, Christians and the struggle for global justice, 2009 by Lexington Books.
Washington, J.M. (ed.), A Testament of Hope, The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr., HarperSanFrancisco 1991.
Jonathan Sacks Not in God’s Name, Confronting Religious Violence, New York, Schocken Books, 2015
Snyder, Timothy, On Tyranny, Twenty Lessons from The Twentieth Century,Penguin, Random House, UK, 2017
Levitsky, Steven/ Ziblatt. Daniel, How Democracies Die, Viking, Penguin Books, 2018
Butler, Clark, Human Rights Ethics, A rational approach, Purdue University Press, 2008.
Shafak, Elif, It‘s not just Europe. Imperial nostalgia is infecting the world, The Guardian –Weekly, Global edition, 14.12.2018, vol 200, no 2.
Ishay.M.R. The Human Rights Reader, London, 1997.
Ermacora, R., Nowak, M., Tretter. H., International Human Rights, Documents and Introductory Notes, Law Books in Europe, Viena, 1993.
Komárková, Božena, Human Rights and the Rise of the Secular Age, Eman, 2003.
Recommended Literature: Global Ethic.
Bauschke, Martin. Die guldene Regel. Staunen. Verstehen. Handeln. Berlin. 2010.
Crossing the Divide. Dialogue among Civilizations.2001
Küng, Hans and Kuschel, Karl-Josef. A global ethic: the declaration of the Parliament of the World’s Religions, 1993.
Küng, Hans, A global ethic for global politics and economics, London 1997.
Küng, Hans. Theology for the third Millenium. New York. 1988.
Hans Küng,(ed.), Yes to a Global Ethic, SCM PRESS LTD, Munich 1995.
Charta Oecumenica. Guidelines for the Growing Cooperation among the Churches in Europe. 2001. http://www.ceceurope.org/wpcontent/uploads/2015/07/ChartaOecumenica.pdf
Panikkar, Raimon. The Intrareligious Dialogue. New York. 1999.
Phan, Peter. C. Being Religious Interreligiously. Asian Perspectives on Interfaith Dialogue. New York. 2004.