The Task of Theological Humanism
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Each sreligious institutions, and also where. It surfaces, for instance, in debates about Muslim women wearing headscarves in schools and public offices. Seen globally, the extremes are ide of this debate is being played out in the popular media, in think-tanks in the United States and else-
more extreme, attempts to estabHindus, Christians, Jews, and Muslims argue among themselves about what These debates find expression ranging from the State suppression of religions to recent lish theocratic regimes.within religious communities. Buddhists,
it means to be a member of the Church, a Jew, part of the worldwide Islamic community, a Hindu, or a Buddhist. Take Christianity, for example. In the United States, the United Kingdom, and elsewhere, there is a theo-logical movement called postliberalism or narrative theology or, we think
best, Christian particularism. This outlook holds that the primary task of the Christian community is to enfold Christian identity within the story of God’s actions in Jesus Christ, and that story alone. Christians need to develop virtues and traits of character, that is, form their identities, in ways to live
within the Church as an alien reality to the “world.” The Church is to witness to the “world,” a realm of violence and sin, about the possibility of peace made possible in the Church and only there. The Church exists in opposition to the “world.” 4
challenge Christian particularism. These Christians believe that the purpose of the Church is to be inclusive, to extend the embrace of Christ. It is to overcome the identification of Christian faith with an invidious patriarchy There are, unsurprisingly, equally powerful voices within the churches that
that effaces the experience of women and the legacy of virulent racism and Eurocentrism that denies the importance of the lives of peoples around the world, especially those formerly enslaved or colonized. These movements form Christian identity in the Black Churches, within local communities
important for liberation theology, in feminist and womanist movements, and also in the Latino/Latina communities. Sad to say, there seems to be a clash of civilizations traditions as well, say in conflict between Sunni and Shi’a Muslims.within the churches. The same could be said of other religious
have often dominated social existence, namely, the religious community, the Christian Church in our case, and political community, the State. These two powers have battled for supremacy in social existence throughout Theological humanism is poised at the intersections of two “powers” that
time. How good of human life: God’s will or the human community. The tactic of theological humanism lodged between these two powers is to articulate that good, the integrity of life, that human communities can and ought to serve.could it be otherwise? Each claims to represent the unsurpassable