Greg M. Epstein is the current secular humanist chaplain at Harvard University, and is a published author on the subject of secular humanism.
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Epstein was born February 4, 1977 and grew up in the ethnically-diverse neighborhood of Flushing, Queens, New York.[1] His parents, though Jewish, were not very religious, and he attended services with them only occasionally, usually during Jewish holidays or festivals. He describes this experience as one of the foundations for his later interest in Humanistic Judaism.[2]
While attending the Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan, Epstein studied Buddhism and Taoism. After graduating from high school, he enrolled in the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. As part of his undergraduate studies in the University of Michigan's College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, he spent a year in Taiwan in an effort to further his knowledge of Zen Buddhism through readings in Chinese and direct contact with Zen practitioners. Becoming disenchanted with Eastern religions during this experience, Epstein returned to the U.S. and completed his Bachelor of Arts in Religion and Chinese from the University of Michigan. He then went on to complete a Master of Arts in Judaic Studies, also from the University of Michigan.[1]
Upon matriculation, Epstein spent about a year singing and recording as a professional Rock musician. It was during this time that he became interested in the philosophy of Humanism. Deciding to return to school, he entered the International Institute for Secular Humanistic Judaism, studying at the Institute's Jerusalem and Farmington Hills, Michigan campuses. In 2005 he was ordained through this organization as a Humanist Rabbi, whereupon he entered the Harvard Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts.[1] In 2007, Greg Epstein received his Master of Theological Studies from the Harvard Divinity School, and accepted the position as the Humanist Chaplain at Harvard University.[3]
Epstein became one of the major supporters for the movement that is known as New Humanism. Although this label had been around since 1900, it had gone into disuse until Epstein and others repopularized it. In April 2007, Epstein organized an international conference entitled "The New Humanism", which commemorated the 30th anniversary of the creation of the Humanist Chaplaincy of Harvard.[3][4]
Epstein expressed concern on overemphasis of inflammatory anti-clericism by some prominent proponents of New Atheism, which he says is what drove him to revitalize the "New Humanism" label in response.
The New Humanism is produced by the Humanist Chaplaincy at Harvard University and is named after the 30th anniversary conference our organization held in April 2007. At that event, the title was chosen to contrast with "The New Atheism," as the media have dubbed the work of writers such as Oxford scientist Richard Dawkins, Stanford doctoral student Sam Harris, and journalist Christopher Hitchens, each of whom had recently published a bestselling book promoting atheism. The intention was to use our conference to draw attention to the idea that Humanism, like atheism, is nontheistic and not traditionally religious, but unlike some popular atheism, Humanism is not necessarily an antireligious ideology. We also hoped our conference could serve as an exploration of the best ways in which Humanism can be more positive and constructive than what the general public had been seeing in the New Atheism. Our speakers, topics, and other conference events were chosen in order to highlight these distinctions.[5]
Recently, Epstein has been featured as a guest on radio and television interviews and lectures, and maintains an online journal titled "The New Humanism"[6]