Liberalism and Liberation

Bastiaan Bouwman is Assistant Professor in History of International Relations in the Department of History and Art History, Utrecht University. His work has been published in the Journal of Global History, the Low Countries Historical Review, and Contemporary European History.

• Figures; Acknowledgments; Abbreviations; Introduction: Christianity and the global politics of human rights; Part I. Religious Freedom and the Ecumenical Turn to Human Rights: 1. Anchoring Christianity: religious freedom, decolonization, and Islam; 2. 'Error has no rights': religious freedom in national-catholic Spain; 3. Between dialogue and denunciation: religious freedom in the soviet union; Part II. Radicalizing Human Rights: 4. Rights against racism? apartheid in south Africa and the programme to combat racism; 5. Human rights as a language of liberation: the ecumenical response to military dictatorships in Latin America; 6. Human rights and 'root causes': the struggle for international redistribution; 7. Globalizing liberationist human rights: ecumenical activism in Asia, Africa, and the west; Conclusion: Christianity, liberalism, and liberation; Bibliography; Index.

'In this panoramic and impressive study, Bouwman charts Western Protestantism's remarkable shift: from anxiously fearing other religious groups and nations to embracing radical pluralism and anti-colonialism. Stretching over decades and continents, it brings to life one of the most astonishing episodes of the twentieth century's religious history.' Udi Greenberg, Dartmouth College