Vol. XXXVIII / 1 - Studia Moralia

124 MARTIN MCKEEVER
dissonance between human rights discourse and Gospel
discourse, not because the Gospel wants to deny human rights,
but because it wishes to go beyond the very idea of rights. In face
of a culture which tends to conceive of every human relation in
terms of rights, christian ethics insists, for example, on the
importance of qualities such as service, love, altruism, sacrifice
and gratuity. In a word, the christian who lives in contemporary
culture needs to be bilingual, that is to say, able to understand
and speak the idiom of human rights, but without forgetting the
more ancient and more sacred eloquence of the Gospel.
Via Merulana, 31
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Italy.
MARTIN MCKEEVER, C.Ss.R.
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Summary / Resumen
Human rights discourse has become so pervasive in contemporary
culture that it is often used without an adequate realization of the
complex ethical issues it raises. This article attempts to analyse these
issues, particularly as they arise in the social setting of contemporary
culture. Adopting in turn a pragmatic, a semantic and a normative
perspective on human rights discourse, the strengths and weaknesses of
this way of discussing ethical questions is explored. The need for greater
elucidation of the ethical basis of human rights claims is emphasised.
While deliberately keeping the main focus on the use of this discourse
in secular culture, the piece concludes with a brief consideration of the
implications of the argument for the use of human rights language in
theological discussion.
La cuestión de los derechos humanos se ha difundido tanto en la
cultura contemporánea, que a menudo se utiliza sin la adecuada
interpretación de los complejos problemas éticos que genera. Este
artículo intenta analizar estos problemas, sobre todo en la forma como
aparecen en el escenario social de la cultura actual. Se exploran los
argumentos a favor y en contra sobre cómo abordar los problemas