Christian Humanism
Secular humanism is very popular with so called "academics" and social activists today and there is a reason that the word secular is there. It is to distinguish from the root movement known as Christian Humanism. The first humanists were Christians. It is revisionist history to deny the impact of Christianity on today's morality and codes of law. It is absurd not to acknowledge the legacy of Christian thought on our culture in the West but it is widely done today. Humanism actually has its roots firmly based in Christianity and it's beginning can be traced back as early as the second century. Taking faith out of the equation and claiming it for its own American and European (non-believing) academics have in fact been perpetuating lies or at best half truths. Christian humanism may have begun as early as the 2nd century. Jesus himself used Greek thinking and logic in his approach to teaching. Ironically Christianity is responsible for the way much of mainstream academia today looks at the world.
It should be noted here that after the conquest by Alexander the Great in the third century BC, Greek culture and language made increasing inroads in Palestine. The Palestinian Judaism of Jesus' day was known as Hellenistic Judaism. Some new Greek cities were founded in Palestine during this period as well. Greek culture and language affected Jews, especially in Jerusalem where about 16,000 people spoke Greek. The Judaism of Jesus had been already deeply changed by its contact with the Greek and Roman world.
The contemporary academics who teach secular humanism as being superior intellectually to Christianity are wrong. It is not more just or legitimate than Christian morality is, in fact people who do this are disregarding their own social history and culture and are perpetuating half truths or even blatant lies. Their patronizing and smug criticisms are a violation of the very reasoning they claim to advocate. There is a conscious effort in many academic circles to demonize and marginalize spirituality and faith today. Some would even have Christianity marginalized to the point that all practicing Christians be ridiculed and dismissed as superstitious and backward.
It cannot be disputed world cultures have always blended and changed over time. All religions and movements have borrowed from others. Greek culture and thought was spreading rapidly to the far reaches of the Roman Empire at the time of Christ. The land of Jesus was in fact multicultural at the time Jesus was teaching and the world Jesus knew was evolving rapidly. It is interesting to not it has only been since the 70s that universities in the US began removing Christian Civilization from their required studies. The loss of the knowledge of our culture's Christian history has proved disastrous. It should be noted here that even though Christianity was deeply influenced by its Greco-Roman and Germanic environment, there is no doubt that it adopted a number of important philosophical ideas and ethical concepts that were uniquely Jewish and that had no real precedent in pagan European religions. The idea of history as a linear process of progress toward a specific end goal came from Judaic elements influencing mainstream thought. It sometimes seems that our modern historians are trying to wipe out centuries of history to advance their pet theory that there is no God and that Christianity is inherently evil or superstitious at best. Ironically this mirrors what the Soviets did in Eastern Europe and Russia after the dissolution of Czarist Russia. My question is, If you are free thinking why would you fear and suppress religion and Christian influence in modern society? The founders of the United States spelled out that there should be freedom to practice one's religion without persecution. It was not their intention to stifle or ban religion from the public realm or drive it underground.
If we ban God from mainstream culture it does not mean He does not exist. What then shall they replace God with I have to ask? Materialism has already brought the West to its knees. It almost seems the hatred of all religion is the new religion. It's zealots are angry and hate filled. It's practitioners think they are in fact saving humanity. The world has never needed the Prince of Peace so much, methinks.
PAX
-Beth Maxwell Boyle
