Category Archives: Uncategorized

This article continues from part I

Humanism: a brief definition

So now we come to Christian humanism. What is it? And what has it had to teach us about the world and about humanity? As a preliminary definition, I offer the following:

Christian humanism is a longstanding philosophy of culture that has drawn from the doctrines of Creation and of the Incarnation for its understanding of the world, of human nature, and of our culture-creating work dedicated to serving our full flourishing as embodied, rational, social beings living in the world. And this Christian humanist philosophy has upheld the central value—often mistaken for the innovation of a secular Enlightenment—of universal human dignity and equality, with its eventual social outworkings in rule of law, democratic government, free trade, and the fostering of human work as the exercise of creativity and rationality to steward and improve the world’s resources. Arguably in the past two centuries the result of these and other outworkings of Christian humanist values has been tremendous growth in global economic prosperity, even as these values have become almost entirely separated from the Christian faith that originated them.

To get to a point-by-point summary of how Christian humanism can help us address the American Christian faith-work problematic, we need to sketch key moments of its development. And to ground this historical sketch, we begin with biblical and doctrinal sources:

http://www.medieval-wisdom.com

Civil War era Moravian band – this pietist group has always been known for its music

Great piece today over at the Daily Beast on the very first July 4th celebration. A sample:

They also had a strong pacifist tradition, dating to their founding amid the religious struggles of the 15th century as a “peace church.” Members were forbidden to serve in the military. They lived by the teachings in Christ’s Sermon on the Mount.

It’s little wonder that by 1783, the Moravians in Salem were thrilled that the battles were over. During the Revolution, both British and rebels harassed them, collected fines, and even attacked them physically. Some young men hid in the forest to escape being pressed into service. A few did join with the rebels; the church forgave them later.

Too, the Moravians, despite their reluctance to bear arms, were pleased to be part of the new country, now that it was at peace. They heeded the governor’s proclamation. And eight years later, in 1791, they welcomed President George Washington for a two-day stay and tour of the settlement.

The whole article can be found here.

Not this broken, but non-functional nonetheless.

Phooey.

Where the medievalist C S Lewis and friends (many of them also medievalists) often hung out

Hi all! Apologies for the looooong stretch of relative silence and inactivity. Life has been more than ordinarily full, especially as I have taken on directorial duties with a major grant initiative at my seminary (the “Work with Purpose” initiative – website soon to be up and running, and I’ll post the link here when it is).

The other thing keeping me busy these days is writing my forthcoming book Getting Medieval with C. S. Lewis. I recently traveled to UNC-Chapel Hill to work in their rare book room on a number of medieval books (modern editions of) that were owned and heavily annotated by Lewis. And I am currently (stuck) drafting the chapter on the medieval passion for theology.

What I intend to do during the coming month, as I race toward the Sept. 1 deadline, is reactivate this blog by sharing snippets of the book as they take shape.

In other news, I will soon be heading up a team launching a brand spanking new online faith-and-work channel over at patheos.com. The funding is in place, the organizing meeting is in a few weeks in Boston, we start work in earnest on Oct 1, and “God willin’ an’ the creek don’t rise,” the channel will launch on Dec 1. At that point the reflections on the theology of work, vocation, and economics that have dotted the pages of this blog during the past year will disappear (or compact into brief one- or two-sentence links pointing to that blog).

Ahhhh. It’s good to be back.

Watch this space.

Peace, joy, and the stimulating exercise of our God-given minds together,

Chris