Abstract:
The argument of human dignity plays an important role in current debates on human rights
and their relevance in modern biomedicine. When discussing the contribution of Christian
theology to current debates on human dignity and human rights the thesis is not that the
modern idea of human dignity depends on a theological grounding. Also, it is not the task
of theology to legitimate rights as Christian a posteriori. We do not need to deduce modern
human rights from theological doctrines. The theological challenge is to find an access for
Christians from their belief to the modern idea of human rights and human dignity and to
discuss the contribution which theology and the churches can make to further development
of human rights. The Christian image of man, which serves as the foundation for the church
position on bioethical topics in the German-speaking context, is a mix of biblical motives, a
Kantian interpretation of the concept of human dignity and an interpretation of the German
constitutional law inspired by the Catholic tradition of natural law. The following presented
theological understanding of human dignity, in contrast, was inspired by the insights of the
Pauline doctrine of justification and its Protestant reinterpretation.
