How fighting for human rights can lead to idolatry

Nigel Biggar is one of the English-speaking world’s most accomplished theological ethicists. In recent years the Oxford University professor has begun addressing political issues, many of them especially contentious. His book on war, for instance, bears the revealing title In Defence of War. He heads a project called Ethics and Empire, and his writings on this topic—including the suggestion that the British Empire was “morally mixed”—have led to demonstrations against him and an open letter denouncing the project.

Lest it be thought that Biggar is merely an academic polemicist striving for relevance and access to the op-ed pages, it should be added that he is the author of many acclaimed works on Christian ethics, covering natural law, public theology, euthanasia, reconciliation, and Karl Barth. His writing is always scholarly, comprehensive, and nuanced. What’s Wrong with Rights? is no exception. Anybody wanting to address the meaning and nature of human rights will need to address this book’s salient arguments.

The book is wide ranging, engaging historical and current political theology and philosophy, contemporary constitutional law, and controversial political issues. It discusses early medieval Christian debates in which the notion of human rights arose, Confucian questioning of rights, assisted dying in Canada, the military occupation of Iraq, and genocide in Rwanda.