How Human Rights and Authenticity Form a Liberal Quasi-Religious Sacred Canopy: Evidence from the Field of Social Work Training for Ultra-Orthodox Students.

In this paper I will claim that human rights coupled with beliefs regarding the self and authenticity make up a current liberal quasi-religion that fills many of the functions of traditional religion. Furthermore, following Peter Berger (1966) who claimed that in modern times traditional religions have a hard time forming a "sacred canopy" that serves as a cosmology for the believer, I will claim that this liberal quasi-religion nevertheless seeks to gain such status. Following Paul Heelas and Charles Taylor I will attempt to demonstrate the link between human rights and authenticity. I will go further than them in claiming that these form a new liberal belief system that claims universality.

In making this claim I will be picking up the lead of Campbell (2001) who claims that theodicy need not be restricted to systems of belief that include God, Knott (2013) who points to the usefulness of the term ‘the sacred secular’, and Timol (2019) who posits the existence of such a secular sacred canopy among indigenous Europeans, which sometimes clashes with the worldview of Muslim immigrants.

In order to demonstrate these claims, I will provide various examples from the public arena and from research I conducted on Jewish ultra-Orthodox social workers who encounter the aforementioned worldview and values, which are new to them, during their academic training program. Understanding these links may serve to better understand the challenges that human rights face in conservative societies.