Spa towns experienced a boom with the creation of rail lines that brought tourists to the resorts. These customers, beckoned by the climate and environment, sought healthful cures and leisurely activities. Resorts like those crafted by François Blanc at Bad Homburg and Monte Carlo exploded in part because they offered gambling, but they also grew because they were able to take advantage of the mechanization of travel in the mid-nineteenth century that developed in tandem with a culture of tourism. Industrialized transportation networks promoted industrialized forms of leisure even as they gestured to healthful living.

In descriptions of the interior drama of the wager, or of the game, or of the convoluted sequence of emotions suddenly untethered and allowed free expression, we see not only the ways that gambling generated emotional intensity in players, but also how it invited closely detailed descriptions of the ways emotions were experienced. Play and the creation of Blanc-style casinos created a social space and a set of images of gambling that provided Europeans from differing backgrounds a common language of emotion that was developed through a discussion of the ways that emotion was contained and expressed in the environment of the casino, an entity typically described as being passionless.

As stated by the editors, this volume addresses the topic of Christianity and international law within the broader conversation about the relevance of religion in the dynamics of global governance. Human rights law is one of the most important elements of international law and there are several dimensions of its relation to Christianity – historically, institutionally, and theologically – that generate theoretical concern. One such dimension is that of Christian agencies within the genealogy and historical developments of human rights law. As demonstrated in several chapters of this volume, an analysis of Christian agencies brings new insights into the research field of international human rights law.

Another dimension of the relationship between Christianity and human rights law is the issue of Christianity as a resource for critique of the contemporary human rights law. Such a critique might have impact on legitimacy as well as on efficiency of the human rights instruments, and it cannot but be framed in particular settings of various Christian traditions and communities.