Max Stackhouse '57 is Guest on Nationwide Radio Program Odyssey

January 27, 2003

January 27, 2003, Greencastle, Ind. - The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations in 1948, [DOWNLOAD AUDIO: "A Great Achievement" 56KB] "is one of the great achievements of the last century, a reaction against the barbarism of the previous half-century," said Max L. Stackhouse, the Stephen Colwell Professor of Christian Ethics and director of the Project on Public Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary and a 1957 graduate of DePauw University, during an appearance on the radio program Odyssey today. Dr. Stackhouse and two other guests examined the roots of the concept of human rights on the program which is heard on a number of National Public Radio affiliates nationwide.

Host Gretchen Helfrich asked where the notion of human rights comes from. Stackhouse, whose books include Public Theology and Political Economy: Christian Stewardship in Modern Society, and Creeds, Society and Human Rights, believes [DOWNLOAD AUDIO: "Divine Center" 169KB] "it's really manifestly clear that if you do a deep historical analysis of where the ideas come from and how they tend to function, certain branches of the biblical heritage have generated an idea of human rights. And it's in part, I think, heavily because of the notion that each one is made in the image of God. And therefore, you have a kind of divine center that gives people the dignity that has to be respected by others."

The entire, 52-minute program is available online by clicking here.

Max Stackhouse also serves as president of the Berkshire Institute for Theology and the Arts, and past president of the Society of Christian Ethics. In addition, he is on the editorial boards of the Christian Century, First Things, and the Journal of Religious Ethics. He is an active member of Amnesty International. An ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, Dr. Stackhouse is a member of the Berkshire Association of Ministers and Churches in Massachusetts and of the Evangelische Kirche der Union-UCC Working Group, Board for Global Ministries.

Back