Founded in 1948, the World Council of Churches (WCC) was an important voice for human rights during the establishment of the postwar liberal international order. Bastiaan Bouwman demonstrates how its Christian human rights advocacy underwent a dramatic change over the following decades, from its initial focus on religious freedom to its later emphasis on social justice. By the 1970s, the WCC had moved to the left, focusing on causes such as the struggle against white minority rule in Southern Africa, right-wing repression in Latin America and Asia, and domestic and international inequalities. Drawing on extensive archival research, Bouwman sheds much needed light on a half century of contest over the concept of human rights. He challenges the notion that the rise of human rights was either a strictly secular or liberal phenomenon and shows how the WCC's advocacy interacted with major political developments such as decolonization and the Cold War.

‘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

‘In this deeply researched history of the World Council of Churches, Bastiaan Bouwman convincingly demonstrates how a campaign to save European Christianity from secularism, Islam, and communism transformed into a broadly inclusive, transnational, increasingly radical global movement for both national self-determination and individual human rights.’

Andrew Preston - University of Virginia

‘This book offers a compelling exploration of the World Council of Churches’ engagement with human rights, tracing its journey from advocacy for religious freedom to a vision of social justice. Through rigorous analysis, it illuminates shifting strategies, evolving theological interpretations, and contextual dynamics shaping this advocacy between the 1940s and 1980s.’

Pamela Slotte Russo - Åbo Akademi University

‘Liberalism and Liberation is a welcome and timely intervention in the field of human rights history. With analytical nuance and geographical breadth, Bouwman succeeds in enlightening us on the important, yet under-appreciated, relationship between religion and human rights in the post-1945 world. The book moves with ease between the international and the domestic levels and with the detailed study of the World Council Churches, Bouwman – alongside other recent scholarship on international civil society – expands on and complicates our understanding of what constituted the international human rights movement beyond the international NGO actors traditionally covered under this label. This is a highly valuable book.’

Steven L. B. Jensen - The Danish Institute for Human Rights