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This chapter explores one of the most important recent Christian critiques of human rights. It uncovers how a group of British and North American theologians, who gathered under the title of “radical orthodoxy,” has claimed that modern human rights laws, and religious liberty in particular, have done great damage to Christianity and should be abandoned. This chapter shows how this line of argument, which has also been embraced by several progressive scholars, has complicated roots. It argues that the origins of radical orthodoxy’s claims lay in reactionary Catholic opposition to religious liberty, and in particular, in the belief that religious freedom was a Protestant conspiracy to eradicate Christianity from the public sphere. This chapter then shows how the writings of radical orthodoxy’s leading figures, John Milbank and William Cavanaugh, resurrected these confessional polemics in their attacks on religious liberty. It then concludes by reflecting on the potential meanings of this genealogy to recent critiques of religious freedom more broadly.
Why should we care about religious liberty? Leading commentators, United Kingdom courts, and the European Court of Human Rights have de-emphasised the special importance of religious liberty. They frequently contend it falls within a more general concern for personal autonomy. In this liberal egalitarian account, religious liberty claims are often rejected when faced with competing individual interests – the neutral secular state must protect us against the liberty-constraining acts of religions. Joel Harrison challenges this account. He argues that it is rooted in a theologically derived narrative of secularisation: rather than being neutral, it rests on a specific construction of 'secular' and 'religious' spheres. This challenge makes space for an alternative theological, political, and legal vision. Drawing from Christian thought, from St Augustine to John Milbank, Harrison develops a post-liberal focus on association. Religious liberty, he argues, facilitates creating communities seeking solidarity, fraternity, and charity – goals that are central to our common good.
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