Human rights is a term used to mean a sense of equality, respect, and dignity of all human beings. It is not given by any state or religion, but it is claimed on the basis of being a human. Both Christian theology and human rights are concerned with and talk about the dignity and wellbeing of a person and community. Their concern is about protection, respect, love, sharing, equality, justice, liberation, etc. Therefore, to a certain extent they can be understood as the secular approach and religious approach to life and its fullness. It is also an affirmation that life is the most precious gift of God. My intention in this paper is not to locate the biblical references to all the thirty articles in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the subsequent covenants. But I will attempt to see how much biblical insights have been drawn in conceptualizing and formulating those rights that aim to protect the total humanity on earth. It would also mean investigating the biblical foundation of human rights.
The term human rights is not employed by classical source of the Jewish religious tradition, which means the Bible does not speak of human rights in modern terms. Hence, there are two views on the issue of biblical concept of human rights; the biblicist and fundamentalist traditions opposed to biblical basis of human rights. In fact, David Jenkin outrightly states, “I do not believe that the notion of human rights is at all biblical.” Eugene B. Borowitz also admits that the modern idea of human “rights” does not exist in the conceptualization in classic Jewish doctrine, for neither the Bible nor Rabbinic literature speaks of human dignity in this way. Acknowledging the historical difference between biblical writing and the emergence of modern human rights, Lorenzen also admits that neither the concept nor the content of modern human rights can be derived directly from the Bible. But one system of values and ideas that constitutes the concept of human rights is hardly absent from the Jewish worldview. On the contrary, those values and ideas are among the beliefs that constitute the very core of Jewish sacred Scripture and the tradition of ideas and practices that flow from it. Daniel F. Polish, on the contrary, argues that the idea-set, which is represented by the phrase human rights, derives in the Jewish tradition from the basic theological affirmation of the Jewish faith. The Bible contains rich insights for understanding the total meaning of human beings and their relation to God and creation. Further, it is explored that the human obligations to God that require duty and responsibility to their fellow human beings are an expression of the modern idea of human rights. The system of law presented in the Torah and elaborated in Rabbinic legal literature is one that guaranteed a fair trial before an impartial court to all people, home-born and stranger alike (Lev 24:22). Judges were forbidden to accept bribes (Deut 26:19), and were prohibited from showing favoritism in any way—to the needy no less than to the powerful (Lev 19:15). The laws were aimed at safeguarding even the weaker members of the society (Lev 25).
A Christian discussion of human rights begins with a definition of “human” that requires God. This will inevitably differentiate it from any secular, humanist view of human that omits this divine dimension. For the Christians, the whole doctrine of creaturehood is the landmark to understand the dignity of human beings and their relationship with God and other living and non-living creatures. Within such a framework, the concept of human beings created in the image of God is one of the basic grounds to understand the biblical idea of human rights. The doctrine of human rights presents a challenge to the conventional understanding of a human. The present secular form of human rights does not clearly articulate the meaning of the term human. Rather, those articles in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights sound as assumptions regarding what being human actually entails. The Judeo-Christian understanding of humanities would begin with the concept that humans are creatures, made in the image of God, who have betrayed that dignity, sinners in need of salvation, recipients of God’s loving care and mercy, a combination of both body and spirit who live in history, capable with God’s help of making moral choices, and called to responsible living in community.
The status of created beings and things cannot be the same as the Creator himself. Because God as Creator is the explanation for the existence of the world and for human existence, the responsibility of all creation is to establish a deep and most essential relation to God. This God-creation relationship is the basis of our existence. However, there are probabilities of breaking this relation. It is because, at the time of creation, God gave to human beings freedom and intelligence that may be used either to affirm or deny the fundamental relationship of existence.
Image of God
God’s creation of human beings in his own Image (Gen 1:26–27; 9:6) is one of the key sources to place human rights within the framework of Christian thought. It signifies a unique human dignity endowed with the knowledge of right and wrong. He created them in his likeness in order that they have close relationship with himself. Therefore, humanity is defined by its relationship to God. And this dignity is shared by all human beings regardless of race, class, sex, and religion. The whole concept of creation gives “visibility” to the “invisible God.” Sinclair B. Ferguson, thus, claims that the doctrine of the image of God can be the foundation of human dignity and for biblical ethics. The creation of human beings in the image of God indicates the dignity and inviolable worth they possess and that is the given rights of every person. Charles Sherlock goes to the extent of asserting that human dignity should not be distorted because it is the object of divine concern. He says, no distinction is to be made between persons in the practice of justice, since each is made in the divine image, and is the object of divine concern. The dignity of the human being is not itself a human right but a source and basis for all human rights, and all human rights promote respect for the singular worth of human beings. Richard Harries is also of the opinion that God creates and at once recognizes the value of what he has created. This is the foundation for a consciously Christian approach to human rights: God makes man in His own image and respects the worth and dignity of what he has created.
The concept of human rights has a theological foundation in the dignity and worth of the human person, created in the image of God. The basic theological understanding drawn from the sentence, “human being is created in the image and likeness of God” is that since every human being is equally created in the image of God, everyone has rights. They should be treated in ways that show care and concern, rather than disdain and disregard, for their continued existence as the beings they are. The work they have been called by God to perform, the activities by which they become the beings that God intends them to be, should be appreciated and supported rather than dismissively checked or hampered. Human rights is important not only to individuals and their relation to the state but it also remains fundamental and inviolable in our interactions with fellow human beings, for the essence of a person is found in relation with others. John Macquarrie also thus understands the content of the imago Dei by referring to his understanding of the personal being of human being that reads, “a person in the fullest sense can only come into being in interaction with other persons.” In the discussion of the image of God, Jürgen Moltmann has also made a significant contribution with his systematic concept of four propositions in order to relate to human rights.
- The image of God is: human beings in all their relationships in life.
- The image of God is: human beings together with others.
- Being created in the image of...
