John S. Nurser

This book looks at how Protestant churches, particularly those from the United States, affected the formation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It focuses on the contributions of Otto Frederick Nolde, a Lutheran, who was most influential in the drafting and adoption of the document. Nurser wants to highlight Nolde's contribution, which he feels are generally overlooked, but he also wants to bring the contributions of the ecumenical churches to the forefront. He discusses John Foster Dulles' work with the WCC as well as the commitment of most churches in the FCC to human rights. He makes a compelling case that the churches involved in the WCC and FCC believed strongly that there needed to be a universal norm for human rights and human dignity. This coincided with work the formation of the Commission for a Just and Durable Peace, showing Protestants desire to help shape a better world. Although the push for a universal ethos did not pan out, there is no question that the WCC and FCC played a major role in establishing human rights, however inconsistently applied, on the international agenda. Nurser does an excellent job of showing that the era of human rights being anti-religious, as in the French Revolution, had ended by the twentieth century.… (altro)