Preface : the motion of inquiry -- Introduction : figuring human dignity -- I. Human dignity and the Vatican. The church, the secular, and pastoral power ; The ontology of vocation : Gaudium et spes -- II. Human dignity and the United Nations. Incapacity by design : politics, sovereignty, and human rights ; Dignity and governance : the universal declaration of human rights -- Diagnostic excursus : economies of life and power -- III. Human dignity and the President's Council on Bioethics. Bioethics and the reconfiguration of biopolitics ; The biopolitical pastoral : beyond therapy -- Methodological epilogue : toward an anthropology of figuration.