Christian Humanism

Humanism is the idea that men should become more of who they are intended to be. Education, specifically liberal education, is one method of achieving this. Indeed, the revival of culture and education in the Renaissance introduced further ideas of humanism from thinkers including Petrarch, Pico, and to some extent Machiavelli. Yet humanism unchecked can become nothing more than the worship of man even in his sinful state. Believing that men are created by God is an important recognition of who man is intended to be. If one accepts that man was created, as the Westminster Confession states, "to glorify God and enjoy Him forever," than true humanism is Christian Humanism.

This past spring semester saw my acceptance of Christian humanism under the influence of Dr. Birzer's class titled American Order and Disorder. The tradition of Christian humanism is found within a wide variety of thinkers in the Western tradition. The early church fathers including the Apostle Paul, St. Augustine, and Thomas Aquinas Christianized the Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle. Paul himself identifies Christian humanism in numerous places throughout his epistles with one of the most notable references occuring in Acts at Mars Hill where he claimed that in Christ we live and move and have our being. This tradition is carried through Augustine, Aquinas, Petrarch, Luther, Melancthon, Calvin, and many of the early American founding fathers. A revival of Christian humanism occured in the twentieth century to counter the rising secularism and ideology. These figures included T.S. Eliot, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkein, Christopher Dawson, and Russell Kirk.

Indeed the Christian humanist understands the role of grace to sanctify the sin of the modern world and provide a way of escape from the false worship of man within humanism. Christian humanism reveals to man his place in the tradition and thus the world he lives in. Jesus Christ represents the true Logos who holds all things together. By Him all things are created and it is only when we rest in Him can we know who we are as individuals.

My own ideas as reflected in previous posts, and in the posts to come, are examples of the Christian humanism that has become part of my life. I hope to continue in the conversation of Christian humanism in a world that has long forsaken the true Logos, the Word that became flesh to dwell among us.