ABSTRACT

The idea that human rights imply a potentially shared universal morality has been challenged by some delegates to the 1993 United Nations Conference on Human Rights in Vienna, the 1995 meeting in Beijing on women, and the 1996 meeting in Helsinki on poverty. The term 'public theology' first appeared in 1974, although it appeared as a summary of a long tradition. It has been developed systematically by several authors in recent years. Similarly, public theologians will applaud when politicians, lawyers, social historians, and activist advocates defend human rights in public discourse. Recently, Xiaorong Li offered a summary and critique of what are today called 'Asian values' by those who resist the developing international standards of human rights. Ironically, one of the leading international advocacy organizations for human rights, Amnesty International, has sponsored lectures by outstanding political philosophers that reveal the fragility of contemporary secular thinking about universalistic principles.