Human Rights: A Christian Primer

Why Talk about Human Rights?
Human Rights and the Human Quest
Rights, Religions, and Ideologies
Human Dignity and Rights: My Christian Perspective
Protecting Human Rights in Practice

Thomas K. Johnson was called to become a moral philosopher by means of a shocking confrontation with evil while visiting a concentration camp as a teenager. Written after 36 years of study and reflection, this book is his mature but brief claim that we need the biblical message to understand human dignity and human fallenness. He is convinced the biblical worldview provides significant wisdom and guidance to understand human rights and their protection, far surpassing other religions and philosophies that address these questions. The book includes biblical studies and moral and philosophical analysis and ends with practical steps all should take.

Johnson’s most important personal effort to protect human rights has been to serve as a visiting professor for a dissident, anti-communist university in Belarus, which was then sliding back into totalitarianism. He has served as the pastor of three evangelical churches and taught philosophy or theology in ten universities and theological schools in eight countries. He is currently Vice President for Research for Martin Bucer Seminary (Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Czech Republic, and Turkey), Adjunct Professor of Social Studies at Vilnius Pedagogical University (Lithuania), and Director of the Comenius Institute (Prague, Czech Republic).