Alfons Bruning Different Humans and Different Rights? The Concept of Human Dignity in Western and Eastern Orthodox Perspectives Alfons Bruning - Faculty Member of the Institute of Eastern Christian Studies, Radboud University Nijmegen (Netherlands). a.bruening@ivoc.ru.nl Focusing on the concept of human dignity, the article compares the views of Eastern Orthodox theology and "western" approaches with further distinction between secular, generally neutral models, and Christian theology. Analysis of Eastern Orthodox theology, of the idea of theosis (deification) in particular, shows that theological foundations of "human dignity" in East and West are often closer to each other than it is usually assumed. Consequently, the actual borderline apparently runs not so much between East and West, but rather between secular and religious approaches. At the same time, the existing models of human dignity and human rights seem to have reached dead ends and need a new orientation in order to provide convincing responses to new challenges. The Eastern Orthodox teaching of theosis, as applied in the "Bases of the Russian Orthodox Church's Teaching on Human Dignity, Freedom and Human Rights" can offer a number of new insights that can be combined with western perspectives for mutual enrichment. Keywords: human dignity, human rights, Russian Orthodox Church, theosis, Christian anthropology. The article is based on the text of a lecture written in Dutch and delivered at the Free University (Vrije Universiteit) and Protestantse Theologische Universiteit (Protestantse Theologische Universiteit) in Amsterdam on January 24, 2013, on the occasion of my assumption of office. The text has been updated and corrected. page 166Introduction OVER the past decades, the term "human dignity" has had a brilliant, if controversial, career. It is popular, but its meaning is not always clear. Here is what is written in the preamble of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, one of the mos ... Read more