Heiner Bielefeldt

For some years now, there have been exciting legal–philosophical and legal–political debates on the purpose, contents and function of the idea of human dignity in a democratic constitutional state. A new book by philosopher and theologian Heiner Bielefeldt Auslaufmodell Menschenwürde? is a reliable guide in this debate. It is one of quite a few books on the subject to have recently come onto the market but it is accessible and is differentiated and fair in its presentation of the problem and lines of conflict. Bielefeldt concludes by defending human dignity, with a few reservations, as useful and indispensable. It is useful for the systematic structure and efficient functioning of the rule of law and it is indispensable as a word in the general “normative vocabulary”. Without it, regardless of their other world views, people would lack a concept to become aware of themselves existentially as “responsible subjects” who owe one another respect. That sounds secularly dispassionate, which is also how it is meant to sound. It is equally self–evident for Heiner Bielefeldt, however, that religiously and musically minded people are also invited to find theological meaning in the idea of human dignity.

Uwe Justus Wenzel: „Die ‚transzendente Majestät‘ der Person“
© Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 8 October 2011