Several world-renowned scholars on law and religion will speak on aspects of "Christianity and Human Rights" at the inaugural event in a five-year spring lecture series Wednesday, March 26 at Emory University School of Law.
The event is the first of the Alonzo L. McDonald Distinguished Scholar Lectures on Christian Scholarship, a new series of annual lectures to be held at Emory. This year's lectures are timed to celebrate the 50th anniversary of several monumental human rights achievements, including the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Act and the International Convents on Civil and Political Rights.
The "Christianity and Human Rights" lectures begin at 12:15 p.m. in Emory Law School's Tull Auditorium and are free and open to the public, with a reception to follow.
Topics and speakers for the March 26 event include:
- Introduction: The Challenges of Christianity and Human Rights
John Witte Jr., McDonald Foundation Distinguished professor, Jonas Robitscher Professor of Law and director of the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory
- What’s Wrong with Rights? Christian Perspectives Pro and Con
Stanley Hauerwas, professor of theological ethics emeritus at Duke Divinity School
- Imprudent Jurisprudence? Human Rights and Moral Contingency
Nigel Biggar, Regius Professor of Moral and Pastoral Theology at Christ Church, University of Oxford
- Do We Still Believe in Redemption? Restoring the Rights and Dignity of the Incarcerated Masses
Robert M. Franklin, newly named James T. and Berta R. Laney Professor in Moral Leadership at Emory's Candler School of Theology
- The Catholic Foundations of Human Rights
Jean Porter, professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame
- The Dignity of the Search for God
F. Russell Hittinger, professor of Catholic Studies at the University of Tulsa
- Fraught Encounters: Religious Freedom, Women’s Rights and Sexual Expression
Helen Alvaré, professor of law at George Mason University School of Law
The lecture series is hosted by the McDonald Agape Foundation and The Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory.