The Religion of Human Rights: Part 4

This is the fourth part of excerpts from Alain de Benoist’s timeless essay ‘The Religion of Human Rights’, published in 1988, in which he examines the ideology of human rights, tracing its influence across various egalitarian, religious, and secular movements, and its role in redefining modern intellectual and political landscapes.

The ideology of human rights today forms the rallying point for all egalitarian movements, both religious and secular, not only because the current ‘egalitarian civilisation’ requires theoretical legitimisation to the highest degree, but also because the theme of human rights constitutes a common layer of development within its discourse. Liberals and rationalists of Western tradition, moderate socialists, Kantians, Marxists, followers of the Christian-social movement, and even traditionalist Christians have all experienced the rational idealism of human rights at some point in their ‘ideological history’. For this reason, this theme is particularly suited to ecumenically bringing them together, at…

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Translated by Constantin von Hoffmeister

Alain de Benoist

Alain de Benoist is the leading thinker of the European ‘New Right’ movement, a school of political thought founded in France in 1968 with the establishment of GRECE (Research and Study Group for European Civilisation). To this day he remains its primary representative, even while rejecting the label ‘New Right’ for himself. An ethnopluralist defender of cultural uniqueness and integrity, he has argued for the right of Europeans to retain their identity in the face of multiculturalism, and he has opposed immigration, while still preferring the preservation of native cultures over the forced assimilation of immigrant groups.