Rowan Williams On The Problem Of Absolute Rights In Reality - Thursday after Lent 2

From yesterday's passage from the Lenten passages from Walter Breuggemann's Gift and Task, I went to start looking into one of the theologians he mentioned, Stanley Hauerwas, who I was totally unfamiliar with.  I listened to several of his lectures on Youtube - got to cheer myself up with something these difficult days - and from what he said I went on to listen to the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, who is a very fine scholar and thinker.  

In lieu of going through Brueggemann's passages for today and tomorrow, I'm going to post a two-part lecture that Williams gave on the topic of Human Rights and Human Identity from a Christian perspective and more.  His deep thinking about the problems of our abstract "rights language" and its impact on real life where rights can overwhelm the common good and can deprive other people of their rights is enormously important.   I have looked for a transcript of this talk and have found what looks like one of an earlier iteration of his lecture on the topic.  I haven't had the chance to read it yet, William's discourse is full enough and deep enough that it's definitely going to take a number of readings and more hearings to be able to address it, so I'm giving you the chance to do that for yourself.   I could't possibly do it justice by writing a response at this point.  I haven't understood enough to address it but I am certain that what he said is very important, especially for the political theme of my blogging.

Here's part 1.

I think what he says here is enormously important as the results of the notion of absolute rights of individuals and, especially, those with large fortunes and, so, power overwhelm, swamp and destroy the common good.   It also poses important problems for Christians and Christian churches.  I'm especially struck and frankly, chilled by what he talked about as the "market state" after about 18:30 in the lecture.