Religion & Ethics: Content from Across the ABC




Date/Time 29 Dec 2014 5:56:53pm
Actually, the Catholic Church has a strange history on human rights, very strange, if the origins of the idea stem from the conviction of a creator god.

It is true that modern ideas of political liberty stem from dissenting Christian groups struggling for their own religious freedom. I am not aware of this happening particularly in Catholic circles, but this might simply be because the puritans were more significant in 17th century English history, than were the (much feared) Catholics in that period of religious ill-will.

I am not only unclear what Ivereigh means by 'liberalism' (for example, economic 'liberalism' is to ordinary folk most illiberal). I am also very unclear what he means by 'Christian humanism'. If he refers to the sixteenth century cultural phenomenon of Christians such as Erasmus and John Colet combining a love of classical letters with their Christian faith, and developing an interest in studying the Bible in Greek and Hebrew, along with a personal attitude of moderation and 'sweet reasonableness', I can go along with this spirit. But Erasmian sweet reasonableness is not a quality peculiar to him and his friends, and is also not a quality peculiar to Christians. For me, I will advocate the reasonableness, Christian or otherwise.