Christianity Still Has Purchase on the Culture
6 Posts Toward a Recovery of Christian Humanism in the 21st Century
A Dirty Word
Humanism is a dirty word to a lot of Christians. As an ethical posture, humanism claims to promote social justice on behalf of the dignity of the human being. As a philosophy it emphasizes reason and naturalism, and vehemently opposes the metaphysical, specifically faith and religion. Very often the adjective secular is added to clarify [READ THE POST]
Human Beings First
In a recent podcast interview I was asked to explain the difference between Christian Humanism and “straight up” Christianity. I don’t recall exactly how I answered the host, but in short, I asserted that true humanism stems from Christianity, particularly as it is expressed in the incarnation. This is because the incarnation was a miraculous [READ THE POST]
Identifying Christian Humanism
Secular, or modern humanism, by virtue of its tenets, lacks the necessary tools to cultivate the imagination for the renewal of culture. The best this kind of humanism can do is exploit the volatile fractures within the culture by means of the inhumanness of the scientific method, the injustice of social justice, and the instability of multiculturalism. [READ THE POST]
The Meaning of Christian Humanism
Since most readers immediately associate “humanism” with secular or atheism, I suppose this wildly incorrect assumption needs some unpacking. No matter how commonplace the modern understanding of humanism has become, I would contend that the secularism or atheism so many associate with humanism is “cut-flower”—the blossom of humanism plucked from its organic stem, Christianity. After [READ THE POST]
Recovering Christian Humanism
Recovering Christian humanism will greatly benefit the culture, but it will be extremely difficult because the nature of the human heart is to fiercely resist renewal any way possible—and defend its loot to the death. [READ THE POST]
Another Primer on Christian Humanism
One of the failures of thought among some of the modern Reformed is the tendency of that some to absolutize the biblical vision for God’s glory. That is, this school of thought asserts the drama of world redemption was played out for God’s glory alone. Understood rightly, this is absolutely true. However, the redemption of [READ THE POST]