Human Rights or Religious Rules?

Johannes A. van der Ven, PhD Radboud University Nijmegen (NL), Doctor honoris causa University of Lund (sweden), occupies the chair of comparative empirical science of religion, especially in relation to religion and human rights, at Radboud University Nijmegen. He is chair of the International Empirical Research Program ‘Religion and Human Rights’. He wrote 15 books in Dutch, German, and English, among which Entwurf einer empirischen Theologie (1990) [Practical Theology: An Empirical Approach (1993)], Suffering: Why for God's Sake?(together with H. Vossen) (1995), Ecclesiology in Context (1996), Formation of the Moral Self (1998), God Reinvented? (1998). Education for Reflective Ministry (1998), Is There a God of Human Rights (together with J.S. Dreyer and H.J.C. Pieterse) (2004). He edited 18 books, and published about 400 refereed articles in ten languages.

All those interested in religion, morality and human rights, as well as theologians, philosophers, lawyers, political scientists and sociologists.

CONTENTS



Acknowledgements ............................................................................ vii

List of Figures and Tables ................................................................ xi

Introduction ........................................................................................ 1



PART ONE



RELIGION

I. Varieties of Religious Weakness and Strength .................. 11

II. Religious Identity ......................................................... 53

III. Refl ective Comparison in Religious Research .................... 88



PART TWO



RELIGION AND HUMAN RIGHTS

IV. Human Rights: Religious or Nonreligious? ........................ 135

V. Human Rights: Natural or Political? ................................... 187

VI. Religious Rights for Minorities ............................................. 226



PART THREE



EMPIRICAL RESEARCH IN RELIGION AND HUMAN RIGHTS CULTURE

VII. Religious Freedom .................................................................. 265

VIII. Separation of Church and State ........................................... 304

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IX. Impact of Religion on Attitudes toward Religious

Freedom and the Separation of Church and State ............... 356



Appendix ............................................................................................. 399

Bibliography ............................................................................................. 000

Index of Subjects ................................................................................ 000

Index of Names .................................................................................. 000