The Task of Theological Humanism
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humanism, to repeat, is not a version of religious humanism in these customary forms, traditional or speculative or, for that matter, spiritual form.events of transcendence manifest in everyday existence and that a transcend-Human beings possess capacities to sense, understand, and respond to
ent reality exceeds intrahuman and infrahuman relations. This is one way in which theological humanism differs from the forms of neohumanism we have also explored throughout this book. The “divine” is not merely a trace “between” human beings. The sense of the transcendent, or an instinct for
the divine, responds to real disclosures within the natural, historical, and linguistic orders of reality. “God” names what is actually present in the power, depth, scope, intensity, and claim of the integrity of life when it is sensed as unsurpassably important and real.
realities of peoples need to be read, interpreted, like one reads a text. They have a semantic autonomy which enables them to address humans as a coun-tervailing subject and agent manifest in and through a text. Humans can gain These disclosures of divinity within the natural world and the historical
real intimations of the divine via signs of sacredness in the world around them and the timeliness of existence, insofar as the transcendent reality shows itself through matter, time, and language. A theological humanist freely decides to sense, attend to, and reflect on those intimations of divine pres-
ence. No supernatural deity or divine action is posited, however. Naturally, critical thinking – moral and scientific reflection – remains a necessary and desirable moment of the interpretation of divine disclosures. But “God” is also more than a regulative ideal, as Rousseau and Kant claimed. “God” is
also not a supernatural agent whose actions determine all reality. For theo-logical humanism, “God” names the presence of the transcendent reach of the integrity of life manifest in various dimensions of existence which claims human beings and empowers them to respect and enhance life’s integrity.
science both in their self-assessments and in their interpretations of the integrity of life. One affirms that “there is within our souls an innate princi-ple of justice and virtue by which, in spite of our maxims, we judge our acts Theological humanists embrace a commitment to a cosmopolitan con-
and those of others as good or bad, and it is this principle that [is] con-science.”ing our powers of thought in all areas. To become people of conscience, we adopt spiritual and religious practices that actualize capacities to be open to (^32) We should cultivate a conscience that is self-critical by develop-
the integrity of life in fundamental moods and feelings.secular humanism we have noted continue to beckon heart and mind even as weariness with the conflict about religion in pluralistic societies fosters This truly is a spiritual struggle. The benefits of religious exclusivism and