The Last Christian Settlement: A Defence and Critique, in Debate with Samuel Moyn

In the introductory essay, Milbank analyses the position of Samuel Moyn, professor of history and law at Yale University, on human rights and their relationship with Christianity, as presented in Christian Human Rights (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015). The extraordinary interest of the first chapter lies in its sketch of the historical relationship between Christianity and the different political–economic positions originating in modernity. In the critical dialogue with Samuel Moyn, the value of the theological dimension and the autonomous or relational (or ontological-social) conception of human nature emerges. The question is also essential in the confrontation with Islam in Western democracies. The question about the future of liberalism is thus framed not only in the context of the latest academic debate, but also in the most urgent contemporary issues.