Human Rights and the Image of God
Roger Ruston
(Published in London by SCM-Canterbury Press (£18.99), and in Lousville, KY by Westminster John Knox Press, 2004)
Synopsis of Headings
Part 1 Introduction
1. Liberal Ideas, Catholic Critics
The clash of rights in secular society
Common ground or illusory consensus?
An alien concept for religion?
2. An Awkward Embrace: Human Rights and the Church
John XXIII and Pacem in Terris: a new role for the papacy
Vatican II and freedom of religion
John Paul II and ‘the culture of death’
‘Unholy alliance’: the Holy See, Islamic states and reproductive rights
Autocratic church government: its problems with individual rights
Rights of All the Faithful in canon law
A question of ecclesiology: familial and conciliar models
Some questions and a direction for this book
3. Aquinas and Fair Trade Coffee
A share in the world’s goods? – unfair trade and the poor
Natural right and community of possessions
Objective and subjective right: the ‘right thing’ and ‘my rights’
Natural dominion: inclusive property in God's world
Private property and common goods
Politics in paradise: the divine gift of government
Image, reason and capacity for God
Fair trade postscript
Part 2 Salamanca: Francisco de Vitoria
4. Right of War and the Law of Nations
Montesino’s sermon: opposing theologies of the conquest
Vitoria’s letter about the robbers of Peru
Right of war – natural and divine justice
The requirimiento: conversion or death
The supremacy of law
5. Encountering the Stranger
Sinner’s rights to property and self-government
Dominion and right: fundamental liberties
Humans and non-humans
Barbarians, the image of God, and true dominion
Unjust titles, illegal wars
Just titles, rights of communication, pretexts for robbery
Responsibilities across boundaries
6. Vitoria's Liberties
The catholic paradigm revisited
Active and passive rights: liberties and benefits
Jean Gerson: liberty and subsidiarity
The right to hunt
Domingo de Soto: the free person in the free community
Conclusion: the School of Salamanca
Part 3 Mexico and Peru: Bartolomé de las Casas
7. Freedom and the Gospel
Bartolomé de Las Casas in history
An intrinsically evil system
Narrative of conversion and resistance
The gospel and the natural people
Sublimis Deus: narrative of a papal letter
The liberty of the sons and daughters of God
The New Laws – a hollow victory?
8. Defender of the Indians
Humanism in conflict
The great debate of 1550: Las Casas and Sepúlveda
Who are the barbarians?
A right to eat people? The extent of religious freedom
Heretics and Africans – a test case
Conclusions: the most precious gift of freedom
9. Dominion, Consent and Self-determination
The sale of the century: Philip II and the encomiendas of Peru
Medieval laws, modern liberties
Power of kings, consent of subjects
The need to justify political power
Traditions of consent
What touches all should be approved by all
Covenantal politics: rights to and rights over
10. Las Casas’s Last Testimony
A scandalized friar and this twelve questions
The King’s last chance
The viceroy’s revenge
Las Casas's rights: concluding questions and some answers
Part 4 England and Carolina: John Locke
11. Sovereign Individuals
States and individuals at war: after Grotius
Which Locke: secular prophet or Christian thinker?
Locke in the United States: neo-liberalism and Lockean rights
Locke the theologian
12. God’s Gift in Common
Narrative of rebellion: the Exclusion Crisis of 1681–3
Revolution or status quo: how egalitarian was Locke?
The patriarchal enemy: rule of fathers or consent of equals?
Reading the Two Treatises as theology
Different views of natural law and common property
13. This Great and Natural Community
Natural duties and political obligations: the limits of consent
Because God commands, or because it is right?
The state of nature has a law to govern it
Workers and their products: the origin of duties and rights
Conclusion: Locke's individualism
14. Property and Labour
Of property: the labour theory and its influence
Money: how it enhances labour
Possessive individualism or social responsibility?
15. The Vacant Places of America
Locke’s North American interests
Making the most of God's gift
Puritan virtues in the ‘waste’ land
Lockean rights and indigenous rights today
Contradictory tendencies of the natural rights tradition
Part 5 Conclusion
16. Interpreting the Image
Nineteenth-century usages: Leo XIII on slavery and workers’ rights
Twentieth-century exegesis: representing God
‘Male and female he created them’: separating dominion from maleness
Two views of natural law: thick and thin versions of the good
Hidden theologies: what secular equality owes to religion
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