A School for Conscience^7
The previous chapter centered on basic goods and the debate about natural life. The kind of good explored in this chapter is the “social” good. Again, we are putting theological humanism on trial with respect to other ideas and positions now dominant in public discourse. In terms of classical humanist
images, we are exploring the school.reasons. First, humanists – religious and otherwise – have always held that the purpose of social life is not only to maintain order, to advance power, or The school is a crucial idea in humanistic social thought for several
to secure wealth, however important those tasks might be. The wider social purpose is to contribute to human well-being and the formation of people’s moral identities through free, creative action. Second, humanists believe, in ways that some others do not, that the bonds of society, the links of human
social life, extend beyond the locality of any specific community, whether a nation, religion, race, or empire. The idea is that human life must be freely formed and, further, that it is rightly formed by engaging the most profound expressions of human insight, intelligence, and creativity. No culture or
tradition possesses the sum total of knowledge and insight; we have much to learn from others.pressing in our current context. Humanistic thought is dedicated to the A third reason why the idea of the school is crucial is perhaps the most
victory of understanding rather than force in confronting human conflicts. There are cases when coercion and force are justified as the means to the ends of new understanding, responsibility, and genuine persuasion. Still, a humanist believes that social life proper aims at intelligence and peace, not belligerence.
There is a finality of the other, as we put it before, and therefore one is nec-essarily committed to a cosmopolitan outlook. Later, we will call this the9781405155267_4_007.indd 1129781405155267_4_007.indd 112Religion and the Human Future: An Essay on Theological Humanism © 2008 David E. Klemm and William Schweiker. ISBN: 978-1-405-15526-7^ David E. Klemm and William Schweiker5/2/2008 7:25:34 PM5/2/2008 7:25:34 PM