Humanism?

[billcu1]

What exactly is Humanism? I have read some and can’t get it exact. Is this from the “Age of Reason” when man got away from the Church and so on. I compare this with 1960’s “feelgoodism” much like modern leftist politics. If you “dig it.” The free sex and love stuff. We can do it on our own, is that what is believe? Against the Churce’s idea that we are totally lost and can’t get anywhere on our own.

 

[po18guy]

From Fr. John Hardon, S. J.† in his Modern Catholic Dictionary:

“HUMANISM. Name originally given to the intellectual, literary, and scientific movements of the fourteenth century through the early sixteenth. Their aim was to base every branch of learning on the culture of classical Greek and Roman antiquity. On its pagan side, it extolled the early non-Christian writers who stressed the full development of human nature, only vaguely interested in life after death. On its Christian side, believing humanists encouraged the free use of the treasures of antiquity without compromising the truths of the Gospel. Christian humanism began with Dante (1265-1321), while pagan humanism reached its peak in Petrarch (1304-74). Popes Pius II, Sixtus IV, and Leo X favored Christian humanism and did much to promote it. St. Thomas More (1478-1535) typified its best spirit in England. After the French Revolution the extreme humanistic spirit rebelled against Christian revelation and the Church.”

As to Christian humanists, Desiderius Erasmus, a primary figure in the 16th century European turmoil, was one of the best known. In our day, secular humanism has asserted itself inordinately, with the obvious negative cultural results.

 

[commenter]

What exactly is Humanism? I have read some and can’t get it exact. Is this from the “Age of Reason” when man got away from the Church and so on. I compare this with 1960’s “feelgoodism” much like modern leftist politics. If you “dig it.” The free sex and love stuff. We can do it on our own, is that what is believe? Against the Churce’s idea that we are totally lost and can’t get anywhere on our own.

“Humanism” is one of those words that might mean almost anything, so it now means almost nothing. What, or who, would **not **be called or call themselves a humanist?

I think it would be better to focus on **Secular **Humanism, otherwise the word means any human, or any idea or social movement at all. Yes, humanist once had a meaning (Erasmus, JP II, many others were called humanist) but they would not be considered real humanists today by others who call themselves humanists.

Secular Humanism refers to a well organized movement over the last few decades. It refers to a specific, agnostic view of human “progress” that all people are called to support, based on equality, interchangeability of men/women, reproductive “rights”, and opposition to religious “dogma” (other than their own religious dogmas, which they don’t consider religious or dogmas).

Classic Secular Humanism can be traced to H. G. Wells, George Bernard Shaw, Bertrand Russell, etc, and was initially more committed to socialism than it is today; today they are obsessed with getting rid of the Natural Law. Compare the Humanist Manifesto I from the 1930s to Manifesto II from the 1970s. I think the best analyses of this movement includes C. S. Lewis’ “That Hideous Strength” and “The Abolition of Man”, and “What is Secular Humanism?” by James Hitchcock. The subtitle on that last book says it all: “Why Humanism became secular and how it is changing our world”.

 

[billcu1]

“Humanism” is one of those words that might mean almost anything, so it now means almost nothing. What, or who, would **not **be called or call themselves a humanist?

I think it would be better to focus on **Secular **Humanism, otherwise the word means any human, or any idea or social movement at all. Yes, humanist once had a meaning (Erasmus, JP II, many others were called humanist) but they would not be considered real humanists today by others who call themselves humanists.

Secular Humanism refers to a well organized movement over the last few decades. It refers to a specific, agnostic view of human “progress” that all people are called to support, based on equality, interchangeability of men/women, reproductive “rights”, and opposition to religious “dogma” (other than their own religious dogmas, which they don’t consider religious or dogmas).

Classic Secular Humanism can be traced to H. G. Wells, George Bernard Shaw, Bertrand Russell, etc, and was initially more committed to socialism than it is today; today they are obsessed with getting rid of the Natural Law. Compare the Humanist Manifesto I from the 1930s to Manifesto II from the 1970s. I think the best analyses of this movement includes C. S. Lewis’ “That Hideous Strength” and “The Abolition of Man”, and “What is Secular Humanism?” by James Hitchcock. The subtitle on that last book says it all: “Why Humanism became secular and how it is changing our world”.

Yes now this is what I’m talking about. We have went like this:

1 Divine law
2 Natural law
3 Human law, too;

1 Human law
2 Natural law
3 Divine law

In my view.

Hollywood people and people that don’t see man as corrupt as I do. I believe myself, that man will always choose sin if left up to himself. That’s opposite secular humanism isn’t it?

Bill