Christian Human Rights

AUTHOR MEETS CRITICS debate: Professor Samuel Moyn (Yale University) will give a lecture on his book Christian Human Rights (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015 – followed by an open discussion.

In Christian Human Rights, Samuel Moyn asserts that the rise of human rights after World War II was prefigured and inspired by a defense of the dignity of the human person that first arose in Christian churches and religious thought in the years just prior to the outbreak of the war. The Roman Catholic Church and transatlantic Protestant circles dominated the public discussion of the new principles in what became the last European golden age for the Christian faith. At the same time, West European governments after World War II, particularly in the ascendant Christian Democratic parties, became more tolerant of public expressions of religious piety. Human rights rose to public prominence in the space opened up by these dual developments of the early Cold War.

Prof. Moyn will present his seminal book, followed by comments by Thomas Gammeltoft-Hansen (Research Director, Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law/adjunct Professor of Law at Aarhus University) and Tine Ravnsted-Larsen Reeh (Professor, University of Copenhagen)​, and a Q&A session.

The debate meeting is open to all and will be followed by a reception.

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