Paul, the stoic and human rights
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Authors
Strijdom, Johan M.
Issue Date
2008
Type
Thesis
Language
en
Keywords
Human rights , Stoic
Alternative Title
Abstract
Two recent arguments trace the genealogy of human rights back
to either Paul on the one hand or the Stoics on the other. First,
Crossan and Reed (2004) suggest that although Paul intended
his egalitarian vision and program for Christian communities in
the first place, his wish that all humanity should convert to a
Christian world of egalitarian justice would logically imply a
basic continuity with the ideals of universal human rights.
Secondly, the classicist Richard Sorabji (2002) considers whether
the concept of human rights is to be found in the Stoic ideas of
oikeiosis and natural law. My purpose will be to relate these two
archaeological arguments, in the light of recent comparisons
between Paul and the Stoics, and to hermeneutically
problematize the discourse with reference to Hannah Arendt's
perplexities on human rights.