Daily Archives: June 26, 2009

Christian Humanism

The English vicar and biblical scholar now blogging at clayboy (formerly of Metacatholic) has a brief but very worthwhile post that objects to the surrender of the term “humanist” to the agnostic/atheist camps.

I entirely agree that the term should not be surrendered.

I will say that there are some forms of Christianity that are not humanistic—I’m thinking of certain full-blown apocalyptic versions (see an earlier discussion of apocalypticism here)—but I’d argue that most versions that fall within modern mainline Protestant and Catholic theologies are indeed humanistic especially when viewed through an historical lens. I.e., there are movements today that may not seem humanistic at first blush—except when viewed against truly theocentric or apocalyptic systems from earlier days…