Wolterstorff on rights

Next wednesday evening at the University of Waterloo Nicholas Wolterstorff proposes to address his audience on the following issue: "Why are Christians and others so reluctant to talk about rights?" Unfortunately I am unable to be present for this, though I would love to be. After hearing his Stone Lectures at Princeton Seminary nearly six years ago, I expect he will be affirming the notion of rights. However, if some Christians, myself included, are wary of rights talk, it is because it is being made to carry too much weight in the political and other realms. Rights are being treated as the end of the discussion rather than its beginning.

All the same, I cannot quite bring myself to repudiate the notion of rights altogether, as Robert Kraynak and others would have us do. They are still helpful, if we can manage to understand them in their proper, limited place.