Incarnational humanism

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The idea of an "incarnational humanism" was not coined recently. It makes explicit a type of Christian humanism which affirms the value and essential goodness of human reason and human culture and may be as old as humanism itself. Certainly there are expressions of humanism which could be described as "incarnational" already during the Italian Renaissance.

In a 1953 article, which can found on the web, later published as Chapter 8 of his influential book, We Hold These Truths (1960), the Catholic theologian John Courtney Murray, S.J., contrasts "incarnational humanism" with "eschatological humanism," a different type of Christian humanism which is more suspicious and critical of human culture. This contrast is typically characterized as "world-affirming" and "world-rejecting."

[edit] References

• Chapter 8: "Is It Basket-Weaving? The Question of Christian and Human Values," in We Hold These Truths: Catholic Reflections on the American Proposition - John Courtney Murray (New York: Sheed & Ward, 1960), 175-196.
• Cf. The Passionate Intellect : Incarnational Humanism And the Future of University Education - (2006) Norman Klassen & Jens Zimmermann