A persistent debate over the past few decades revolves around the question of the origins of the idea of human rights. Do we owe it to our Judeo-Christian heritage, or is it a product of the Enlightenment? Neither, claims social theorist Hans Joas, who tells a very different story of human rights in his book. In the style of historical sociology, he uncovers a surprising third perspective: the belief in universal human dignity is the result of a process of sacralization, during which each individual human being came to be regarded more and more as sacred. Joas traces this process through exemplary studies, such as the abolition of slavery and the genesis of paradigmatic explanations of human rights, and analyzes it as a complex cultural transformation.