Rights and Christian Ethics

Abstract

Kieran Cronin aims in this book to show how a Christian perspective may have something fruitful to contribute to the language of rights. In so doing, he examines some of the complexities involved in using this language, drawing from literature in moral philosophy and jurisprudence in the process. The novelty of his approach lies in the attempt to distinguish two complementary aspects within metaethics, aspects which the author calls the 'discursive' and the 'imaginative'. Cronin regards the use of models (which are extended metaphors) as providing a bridge between these two aspects, and the imaginative metaethics which emerges is seen to be rich in possibilities for both secular and Christian understandings of rights-talk.

Human Rights and the Idea of Natural Rights

“…Breaking with theism, and consequently, with the Christian doctrines of natural law, can be perfectly observed in Hobbes' thinking, whose achievements in the field discussed in this work are evaluated very differently. This stems from the fact that, on the one hand, many researchers who perceive Hobbesian rights as physical freedom consider them thoroughly different from the contemporary models of an individual's rights (Cronin, 1992), but on the other hand, it is difficult not to arrive at the conclusion that Hobbes' philosophy is full of criticism that is centred on the perception of rights as what is just. Hobbes' rights, which are devoid of any obligations correlated with them, become truly subjective and, in a sense, universal (Malcolm, 2006).…”

Natural Rights to Welfare

“… 7 Moltmann 1984: 23. For roughly similar statements from both Catholics and Protestants, see Brackney 2005: 68; Brunner 1945: 58–62; Cronin 1992: 250–66; Gardner 1995: 130; Gutiérrez 1977: 159–60; Harries 1991: 6; Hollenbach 1979: 126–7; Kasper 1991: 263; Maritain 1943: 37; Meeks 1989: 90–91; Stackhouse 1984: 59; Williams 2005: 160–4; Wolterstorff 1987: 52–3. …”