Preview Response

Justice / Humanities

Casey Strine

Senior Lecturer in Ancient Near Eastern History and Literature at the University of Sheffield

Insofar as this argument depends on interpretations of texts from the Hebrew Bible and their contribution to ethics, this intersects with writing I have done on particular texts (in Genesis, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel) and with my contention that there are significant impediments to Western thinkers understanding the ethical perspective of these texts.

I want to query whether ‘rights’ is the appropriate term for what is advocated in this preview. Would it not be more appropriate to maintain that the value (or worth, as it is said in the preview) of every human being means all people have obligations in how they treat others? This reverses the perspective of the language in the essay—focusing on the Other rather than the Self—and seems to better reflect what is said in the final five paragraphs in my reading of them. This change would also engage other relevant texts (e.g., Gen 9:6; Matt 22:39 et passim).