Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Discovering and Rediscovering Human Rights History

Discovering and Rediscovering Human Rights History This article surveys one historian’s experience in researching and teaching about the role of religion in the development of modern human rights in the era of the two world wars and the Holocaust. The first part focuses on the so-called Catholic human rights revolution. It examines transformations in Catholic political thought and social action as a process rather than a revolution—a gradual, incremental, and often contested dynamic that was neither linear nor inevitable. The second part pivots to explain how research on the contested origins of human rights in Catholic thought and social action have stimulated a broader teaching interest in the origins and contemporary meaning of human rights. The article argues that this dynamic of contestation is critical to understanding human rights history in order to lay bare why we have been arguing for decades and even centuries about the nature and application of human rights, and why those arguments matter to the political and moral force that the idea of human rights claims in our world. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png The American Review of Canadian Studies Taylor & Francis

Discovering and Rediscovering Human Rights History

Download PDF
10 pages

Discovering and Rediscovering Human Rights History

Abstract

This article surveys one historian’s experience in researching and teaching about the role of religion in the development of modern human rights in the era of the two world wars and the Holocaust. The first part focuses on the so-called Catholic human rights revolution. It examines transformations in Catholic political thought and social action as a process rather than a revolution—a gradual, incremental, and often contested dynamic that was neither linear nor inevitable. The...
Loading next page...
 
/lp/taylor-francis/discovering-and-rediscovering-human-rights-history-9N2a4Uq00B
Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Copyright
© 2023 ACSUS
ISSN
1943-9954
eISSN
0272-2011
DOI
10.1080/02722011.2023.2172887
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

This article surveys one historian’s experience in researching and teaching about the role of religion in the development of modern human rights in the era of the two world wars and the Holocaust. The first part focuses on the so-called Catholic human rights revolution. It examines transformations in Catholic political thought and social action as a process rather than a revolution—a gradual, incremental, and often contested dynamic that was neither linear nor inevitable. The second part pivots to explain how research on the contested origins of human rights in Catholic thought and social action have stimulated a broader teaching interest in the origins and contemporary meaning of human rights. The article argues that this dynamic of contestation is critical to understanding human rights history in order to lay bare why we have been arguing for decades and even centuries about the nature and application of human rights, and why those arguments matter to the political and moral force that the idea of human rights claims in our world.

Journal

The American Review of Canadian Studies – Taylor & Francis

Published: Jan 2, 2023

Keywords: Human rights; history; religion; personalism; pedagogy

References

  • “Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s Opening Remarks at the Department of Public Information (DPI)
  • The Strange Triumph of Human Rights, 1933-1950
  • Text of Pope Pius XII’s Christmas Message Broadcast from Vatican to the World
  • Pope Pius XII Christmas Radio Message