Christian Humanism Research Articles

A Concise Theology of the New Testament by Frank J. Matera

Reviewed by: A Concise Theology of the New Testament by Frank J. Matera Craig L. Blomberg frank j. matera, A Concise Theology of the New Testament (Biblical Studies from the Catholic Biblical Association 1; Mahwah, NJ: Paulist, 2020). Pp. 120. $19.95. Not every new series seeking "to bridge the gap between the technical exegetical work of the academic community and the educational and pastoral needs of the ecclesial community" (p. ix) would turn to a veteran biblical scholar to write their inaugural volume. The Catholic Biblical Association of America has done precisely that, and they could not have chosen anyone better than Frank Matera, professor emeritus of the Catholic University of America and author already of an excellent full-length volume of NT theology. Matera's introduction surveys the main approaches to his task, wisely opting for one that considers historical, theological, literary, and canonical dimensions; that highlights both unity and diversity; and that proceeds book by book or corpus by corpus. Successive chapters treat the Synoptic tradition, subdivided by evangelist (including Acts with Luke); the Gospel of John, subdivided by topic; the Pauline tradition, subdivided into the early letters (1–2 Thessalonians), the great letters (1–2 Corinthians, Galatians, and Romans), the letters from prison, and the Pastorals; and diverse traditions, dealing with all the remaining letters and Revelation. M. is well aware of those works with questionable authenticity but treats all of the Paulines together because he is studying their canonical form. For that reason, he also observes the promise–fulfillment schema of the two testaments together. Readers familiar with the dominant and distinctive themes of each section of the NT will find few surprises here, but rather a solid, reliable guide. Generally, M. prefers to select a small number of key themes for each book or author and explain them clearly, without trying to deal with the longer lists of topics typically found in a larger work of this genre. But his themes are always well chosen. For example, under Mark he deals with "the gospel of the kingdom, the identity of Jesus, and the call to discipleship" (p. 17). For John's Gospel, he treats the word made flesh, God sending the Son into the world, and a trio of smaller central topics: the world, the Jews, and the disciples. Section and chapter summaries prove remarkably clear and succinct, for example, under Mark's christology: "Jesus the Son of God, the Messiah, is the suffering Son of Man whom God vindicates by raising him from the dead" (p. 20). Sometimes one could wish for an ever-so-brief rehearsal of other key themes and passages. As central as christology and righteousness are to Matthew, and as telling for those themes as are the infancy narrative and the Sermon on the Mount, respectively, might we [End Page 142] have an idea of key contents and themes in the rest of the book? The other major sermons are presented but nothing else. Or, later, in a two-page summary of Hebrews, M. presents the letter's christology, with priesthood and sacrifice at the heart of Christ's person and work. But what about the vexed question of apostasy and loss of salvation? Numerous similar questions could be posed. Dealing with Paul in a brief primer creates perhaps the biggest challenge of all. Certainly, it makes sense to treat the Thessalonian letters together, on the resurrection and parousia; Galatians and Romans as a pair, on justification and God's saving righteousness; Ephesians and Colossians, unpacking Christ and the church; and the Pastorals. But are the two Corinthian letters really that theologically akin to Galatians and Romans? Or do Philippians and Philemon belong that much with the other two letters from prison? If one dates Galatians late, the groupings nicely correspond to chronology as well, but what if one dates it early? Matera's treatment of the NT's unity overlaps with some systematic treatment, for which he expresses appreciation, with "in Christ" unifying everything: "God in Christ," "Humanity in Christ," "Community in Christ," "Life in Christ," and "All Things in Christ." The short conclusion adds reflections on how NT theology can enrich the life of the church. "God...

Christian humanism in Rachmaninoff's art through the prism of Russian religious philosophy of the late XIX<sup>th</sup>-early XX<sup>th</sup> centuries

Christian humanism in Rachmaninoff's art through the prism of Russian religious philosophy of the late XIX<sup>th</sup>-early XX<sup>th</sup> centuries

ЙОГО ВСЕСВЯТІСТЬ ПАТРІАРХ ВАРФОЛОМІЙІ ЯК ПАТРІАРХ І ГУМАНІСТ

The article examines the figure of the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, his pastoral ministry and humanistic attitude to the world and man on the basis of various sources and from the standpoint of comparative analysis. The problem of humanism and human relations is one of the main problems of the modern world, and Dimitrios Archondonis – Bartholomew I demonstrates with his life and deeds, the example of Christian humanism and love of neighbour, as it is commanded by Jesus Christ himself in the New Testament. The process of Ukrainian state renaissance, its national and spiritual formation are followed by a growing interest in Christian humanism, which in its essence and direction is an effective means of "moral healing", "spiritual revival", the formation of national identity, affirmation of its culture and "healthy" consciousness. Various philosophical, scientific, religious and other ideas and views on ecology, nature and man, the meaning of its existence, place and role in the world, which were developed and implemented throughout the historical development of world philosophy and culture in modern Ukraine need not only ideological and theoretical reasoning, but also a visual demonstration of examples of Christian humanism, an example of which is Bartholomew's I life and pastoral serving of God. Emphasizing the existence of a deep moral crisis in modern society, the Ecumenical Patriarch sees the root cause of all global problems in it. The way out of this crisis, in his opinion, is the formation of a new philosophy of international relations, the focus on broad international cooperation, the creation of a common European home, the Christianization of the whole Earth through the "evangelization of its peoples." Like all Christian churches, the Orthodox patriarch believes that the problem of war and peace is a planetary, global problem and at the same time a global challenge to all "globalized humanity" today. And the development of a new concept called "theology of peace" (or Orthodox "myrology"), started in the 60s of last century created by his ideologues, was the response of Orthodoxy to this challenge. A characteristic feature of the whole period of Bartholomew's I Patriarchal reign is the constant moral and humanistic dialogue not only in the middle of Orthodoxy itself, but also among the whole Christian world as a whole. The idea of harmony, tolerance, mutual understanding for him is the main issue for conversation and constructive dialogue with various religious figures and denominations.

Христианский гуманизм в русской религиозной мысли. Apropos The Oxford Handbook of Russian Religious Thought, ed. Caryl Emerson, George Pattison, and Randall A. Poole (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020), 712 pp.

The article offers comments on the book The Oxford Handbook of Russian Religious Thought, to which was dedicated a symposium held on April 6, 2021. It took place at the Library of Russian Philosophy and Culture “The Losev House” in cooperation with the Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow. It considers the topic of Christian humanism, the main position of which can be defined as the possibility of improving a person in his unity with God. It is noted that Christian humanism took the form of personalism for some Russian philosophers. The theme of Christian humanism is considered taken as an example the work of the outstanding philosopher Vladimir Solovyov and his followers: Sergei Bulgakov, Nikolai Berdyaev and Semyon Frank.

Who We Are

The weeks-long rioting and the destruction of property were more than just a hyper reaction to apparent racial discrimination in 2020. We might interpret this anti-social and criminal behavior as having its origin with an envy and resentment over things material. We were warned about this misuse of our freedom more than forty years ago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. Finding our way back from a materialist-saturated vision of the good life depends on taking up a Christian humanism which was championed by Pope Saint John Paul II. We see that Christian humanism expressed vividly in family life.

El sol del Renacimiento que alumbra las utopías: un estudio comparativo de la teoría política de Moro, Campanella y Bacon

Renaissance utopias belong to a period when Modernity was being built within political thinking, which turns them into a nexus between classical antiquity and the Enlightment, thereby preserving for posterity a series of critical issues, such as democracy, a radical version of natural law or the need for distribution of goods. Christian humanism is also present and, together with Plato’s concept of justice, it enables these utopias to set a different course from that followed by other Renaissance political theory options, founded either on political realism (Machiavelli) or on jus naturale as a justification of an authoritarian state (Bodin). Thus utopia spreads its wings not only announcing Modernity but also the 20th century socialist horizon

THE ‘DUNKELMÄNNER’ OF DOKTOR FAUSTUS: HUMANISTS VERSUS THEOLOGIANS

AbstractThis essay considers the treatment of theology in Thomas Mann's novel Doktor Faustus. Specifically, it proposes theology as meeting‐point of the two opposing elements characteristic of German cultural history: humanism and fanaticism (‘the demonic’). The most significant representatives of humanism are the so‐called ‘Dunkelmänner’: the Christian humanists of the Reformation period and authors of the Epistolae obscurorum virorum. In these letters, we encounter the refined creative capacity of the human mind and spirit, in contrast to the excessive coarseness of the protestant Reformation and Martin Luther. The novel's narrator Serenus Zeitblom identifies himself particularly with Crotus Rubianus and Erasmus as representatives of both the classical and the Christian cultural world, a tradition threatened by fanaticism and violence in the twentieth century as in the sixteenth. The Epistolae arose from the burning of Jewish literature, and Mann's point is that the enfeebled German intelligentsia of the Third Reich now contains no true ‘Dunkelmänner’ – except perhaps himself. The essay also examines the sources of the theological material in the novel, both with reference to the characters in the university faculty in Halle and to the theological concepts themselves which give the novel its essential substance and are therefore necessary to its understanding.

Peter the Great as a Stern Herald of Christian Humanism in Russian Church Life

Peter the Great as a Stern Herald of Christian Humanism in Russian Church Life

Christian motives in the philosophical work of Merab Mamardashvili

This article presents a conceptualization of the main themes of Merab Mamardashvili’s philosophy: the phenomenon of thinking and consciousness, the role of philosophy in the formation of a person’s personality, the problem of “effort”, and the philosophical concept of time. The hypothesis of the article is that this issue is based on an implicit “religious soteriology”, which is manifested by Mamardashvili in his special understanding of the role and tasks of philosophy in culture. In this context, the traditional themes of Mamardashvili’s work receive a new, original reading. The topic of “effort” is approaching the understanding of faith as a religious act, and philosophy itself becomes a secular version of the Christian religion, called upon through thinking to realize the “salvation” of man and the highest justification of culture. This view also makes it possible to explain Mamardashvili’s rejection of any “national” traditions of philosophizing, since, apparently, in his criticism of nationalism he relies precisely on Christian ideas about the unity of Christian humanity and European culture. Attention to these aspects of Mamardashvili’s philosophy clarifies and gives additional meaning to many of the classic plots of his philosophy and allows redefining the basic concepts anew.

Nadčasově didaktické pojetí Ježíšovy věci v díle Milana Machovce jako výzva k teologické reflexi

The study analyzes the book by Milan Machovec, “Jesus for Modern Man”. It shows that the book was an intriguing. work within the Czechoslovak Marxist-Christian dialogue. “Jesus‘ cause”, which Machovec introduced to the readers of his time, can still be an appealing philosophical contribution to the topic of education for fully Christian humanity.

Peasant Question in the Demian Kochubey’s epistolar heritage of 1857–1858

The article analyzes the letters of 1857–1858 by Demian Kochubey (1786–1859), a high-ranking official in St. Petersburg, to his relative Hryhorii Galagan (1819–1888), a public figure, both of whom belonged to the top local nobility of Left-bank Ukraine. The main theme of these important epistolary texts is the preparation for the abolition of serfdom. This example demonstrates the significant information potential of epistolary materials for the study of emancipatory projects. In particular, from this source we learn about the ideological and moral preconditions of Emancipation reform, from French liberal political economy to Christian humanism, and see the breadth of specific problems facing supporters of peasant emancipation, such as the financial possibilities of the state to ensure the redemption of landed estates for peasants, the principles of peasant land tenure in the post-reform period, the establishment of positive interaction between landlords and peasants after their emancipation for the economic prosperity and avoidance of social conflicts. It is argued that relying on epistolary materials will contribute to the cultural and anthropological understanding of the «emancipation projects» of Ukrainian public figures in the mid-nineteenth century. The need to continue the publication of epistolary materials for further in-depth study of the preparation and implementation of the Emancipation reform was emphasized.

Don Quixote and Catholicism: Rereading Cervantine Spirituality by Michael J. McGrath

Reviewed by: Don Quixote and Catholicism: Rereading Cervantine Spirituality by Michael J. McGrath James Nemiroff McGrath, Michael J. Don Quixote and Catholicism: Rereading Cervantine Spirituality. Purdue UP, 2020. Pp. 189. ISBN 978-1-55753-899-4. During the past century, Don Quixote has been analyzed from a variety of critical approaches, whether it be from the perspective of theories of the novel, how the novel dialogues with other disciplines, such as visual art or political philosophy, or, more basically, whether Cervantes’s novel exaggerates Catholicism or is informed by it. In Don Quixote and Catholicism: Rereading Cervantine Spirituality, Michael J. McGrath tackles this third question and argues that Don Quixote is a novel inherently informed by the teachings of Catholic orthodoxy (5). McGrath’s goal in his study is “to reclaim Cervantes’[s] Catholicity from the interpretative tradition that ascribes a predominantly Erasmian reading of the novel” (5). McGrath’s study is divided into six chapters. Chapters 1–2 provide historical and critical context for the literary analyses he will pursue in chapters 3–6. Chapter 1 focuses on how Cervantes’s life experiences and intellectual upbringing informed not only his spirituality but also his literary works. For example, McGrath mentions how his allegiance to the Holy League, his fighting in the Battle of Lepanto and subsequent imprisonment in Algiers exposed Cervantes to a variety of cultures and religious traditions that helped inform his early dramatic works (namely El trato de Argel). Moreover, McGrath discusses how his formal education in the works of St. Ignatius of Loyola and Santa Teresa de Avila can help critics understand both Don Quixote’s journey, insofar as the knight imitates the life of St. Ignatius, but also his literary references. Beyond simply being a satire of various genres popular during the Early Modern Period, McGrath [End Page 145] contends that Don Quixote’s readings are indeed acts of contemplative prayer, which evoke mental images or mental symbols (27). Using the conceptual vocabulary of St. Ignatius, McGrath contends that Don Quixote can be read as a manual of Cervantine spirituality that privileges Ignatian spiritual practices over Erasmian Christian Humanism. However, before exploring the different spiritual elements in Cervantes’s novel, McGrath contextualizes his study further in chapter 2 by discussing Erasmus’s impact on Jesuit spirituality, and in so doing responds to the classic Erasmian readings of Don Quixote offered by Américo Castro and Marcel Bataillon. In chapters 3–6, McGrath analyzes both parts of Don Quixote from this Catholic lens attempting to see to what degree Don Quixote mirrors Cervantes’s Catholic upbringing. In chapter 3, McGrath analyzes the novel from the perspective of moral theology, a discipline that became increasingly important in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries due to Spain’s conquest of the New World. McGrath takes as his point of departure Don Quixote’s confession at the end of Part II to probe about the nature of Don Quixote’s morality throughout both parts. The author claims that the morality of the knight’s actions can be evaluated based on the degree in which he perceives the objective and subjective morality of his actions defined as “the relationship between what a person does and the moral order, or the difference between whether an action is good or evil and whether the human being believes it to be so” (66). In order to prove the degree to which morality drives Don Quixote’s actions, McGrath considers the knight’s encounters with Andrés, his first encounter with Ginés de Pasamonte and his meeting with the galley slaves. While the first criterion focuses more on Don Quixote’s justifications for actions, McGrath concludes the chapter exploring the degree Don Quixote is moral, taking into account the consequences of his actions on other characters. In order to assess this consequence, McGrath introduces the concept of the double effect, a concept derived from Neo-Thomist philosophy popular in the period. After considering how Don Quixote’s actions are driven and determined by a Catholic morality, chapters 4–6 consider how the knight errant and his squire Sancho Panza imitate tenets of Jesuit spirituality in a variety of ways. Chapter 4 focuses on episodes...

Solitude and selflessness and the cultivation of humanity in liberal and religious education

ABSTRACT This paper attempts to analyse the role of solitude and selflessness in promoting consideration for the person and the possibilities offered by liberal and religious education in this regard. The empirical point of departure is the Polish system of public education, where liberal education takes the form of general education while religious education is pursued as catechesis. The theoretical grounding for the characterisation of selflessness as the goal of education and solitude as its method are provided by Roman Ingarden’s phenomenological conception of personal and moral values and Erasmus of Rotterdam’s Christian humanism. I propose that firstly, liberal education may provide significant aid to religious education for the cultivation of selflessness; secondly, that solitude in normal conditions may be a unifying factor for liberal and religious education; thirdly, that selflessness and solitude, being two complementary parts of consideration for the person, constitute the test of good education understood as the cultivation of humanity.

General Education for a Closed Society: Neo-Puritanism in American Civic Education After World War II

Background/Context: This research is framed by both the historical lineage of the New Civics and the legacy of educational and curricular debates in the United States. It contributes to the literature on mid-20th century education. Purpose and Research Questions: This study explores the relationship between religion, civics, and education through the lens of university and faculty leaders at Harvard, Princeton, and Yale Universities in the mid-20th century. Research questions include (a) What were some of the major trends in curricular reform before totalitarianism emerged as an idea or concept, and how were they related to questions of freedom? (b) In the mid-to-late 1930s, how did the presidents of Harvard, Princeton, and Yale view the idea of totalitarianism/authoritarianism and its potential impact on these earlier reform efforts? In addition, what role did trustees, students, faculty, and other constituents play in these conversations? (c) What educational proposals were offered as solutions or counterattacks to totalitarian ideas? (d) What lessons can we draw today from these debates about educating for freedom? Research Design: This study utilized a historical case study design based on intellectual, educational, and cultural history. I examined more than 30 archival collections at Harvard, Princeton, and Yale; my focus was on curricular meeting minutes, presidential papers, dean’s papers, and individual manuscripts. Findings/Results: Most literature on 20th-century American education and civics focuses on secularization. My research instead emphasizes the dynamic relationship between religion and education, including the ways in which educational practices became religious in form and purpose. I illuminate the ways in which, even after World War II, Christian supernaturalism and secular facts were thought by a coterie of faculty and university leaders to be interconnected. Educators at Harvard, Princeton, and Yale referenced Christian Humanism—a fusion of supernatural and secular—as being highly relevant to their time.

E. JeromeVan Kuiken, Christ's Humanity in Current and Ancient Controversy: Fallen or Not?London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2017, xii + 220 pp. £29.99 pb.

E. JeromeVan Kuiken, Christ's Humanity in Current and Ancient Controversy: Fallen or Not?London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2017, xii + 220 pp. £29.99 pb.

The Future of Christianity and Literature in Higher Education: Toward a New Christian Humanism

The Future of Christianity and Literature in Higher Education: Toward a New Christian Humanism

Myśl Wincentego Granata wobec problemów współczesności

The aim of the article is to present relevance of the personalistic Granat’s thought in the context of contemporary social challenges. In the article, I analyze the topic of Christian humanism in Granat’s thought. I point out that he saw the sources of this concept in man’s aspirations to learn the full truth about himself. Granat saw the final answer to these desires in the relation of man and the sense of his existence to the person of Christ. I also consider Granat’s opinion about the role of the Catholic church today. I would like to draw your attention to the fact that Granat clearly emphasized the deep spiritual and apostolic dimension of the Church, pointing out that the Church is above all the Mystical Body of Christ. Therefore, the fundamental task of the Church is to unite God’s children around Christ. The Church also has a duty to proclaim to man that he cannot understand himself without Christ. The Church accomplishes these goals by administering the sacraments and moderating interreligious dialogue. I consider the issue of peace in his philosophical refl ection as well. According to Granat the source of peace is God. Man drawing his strength from his closeness with God can contribute to peace through mutual respectful relationships. At the state level the key role is played by the concern of each country for the common good and international cooperation in this field. In conclusion, I formulate summarizing remarks.

Transmission and Transformation of Kabbalistic Knowledge in Italy at the End of the Fifteenth Century

Abstract The article looks at the transfer of knowledge between Judaism and Christianity in the Renaissance, a period characterized by the encounter of different cultures and belief systems. In particular, it will focus on the Christian Kabbalah, which channels various philosophical and sapiential traditions into a universal, and at the same time, plural vision of wisdom. This convergence of ideas resulted, on the one hand, in the elaboration of translations, adaptations, and vulgarization of Jewish texts and, on the other, in the development of new interpretations. This is a characteristic of the collected writings of Pierleone of Spoleto, which involved the transformative communication of Jewish translators and the creative reception of Christian humanists. Of these manuscripts, we will examine the annotations concerning the sefirot, which are an excellent example of the reinterpretation of Jewish thought through a typically humanistic perspective.

Piccolominijevo Pismo Mehmedu in krščanska lectio civilnega humanizma

In 1461 the Italian humanist Enea Silvio Piccolomini, pope Pius II, writes a famous letter to the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror, which is still quite unknown in the Slovenian academia. It reveals a complex and ambivalent, in fact an unquiet, mind, typical for the thought climate of the Late Middle Ages. It provides us a myriad of interesting historical, philosophical, sociological, philological and theological questions. This paper aims to contextualize this precious document in the field of historical humanism, problematize the late crusade ideology and search for relations with other irenic solutions. The Letter to Mehmed is a window on the world of the civil humanism meeting the active conception (vita activa) of the Christian humanism, which is the ultimate lesson of the early and middle Renaissance.

The Scientific Spirit of American Humanism, by STEPHEN P. WELDON

A quite large literature on the sociological relationship between American religion and science has emerged in the past few decades. After showing that conflict over fact claims is largely limited to conservative Protestants and human origins, sociologists have begun to focus on moral conflict. Historian Stephen P. Weldon’s excellent analysis contributes to our deeper understanding of moral conflict between religion and science as well as the history of nonreligion in America. The book is a history of the integration of science into organized American humanism from the late 19th century to the 1990s. The book focuses on two types of humanists. The early group were Christian humanists at the very liberal end of the Protestant spectrum—primarily Unitarians. While religious humanists thought science was a noble endeavor that satisfied human desire for explanation, this was part of a more holistic image of the human, with meaning being derived from much more...