Human personhood and social benevolence – reformational

Abstract

In spite of the academic interest in human rights in reformational- evangelical circles during the past 100 years, the existence, necessity and importance of such rights, in particular the right to human dignity, have not been provided with an underlying Scriptural foundation for the understanding and evaluation of these rights. In this article the reformational perspectives of Martin Luther are utilised and developed in order to establish a moral framework for the human right to dignity and for determining its meaning and purview as a foundational human, political and legal value.