Question

How did judeo Christian ideas influence legal traditions in western countries

Answer 1

The Western tradition is indebted to Judeo-Christian formations of the special dignity of human beings and the rights and responsibilities which are theirs by virtue of that dignity. All human beings owe their lineage to a set of common parents according to the Hebrew Bible. These parents, Adam and Eve, were made in the image and likeness of their Creator (Gen. 1:27), and thus all their progeny bear that image (i.e., the imago Dei). From these beginnings we inherit the concept of human exceptionalism—the belief that human beings are unique, possessors of inalienable rights, and ought to exercise managerial stewardship over nature.