Living Theological Humanism
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an instrumental thinking for which nothing has intrinsic worth. Over-humanization has brought our planet to the brink of catastrophe. Global climate change, for example, is now generally recognized as caused by unre-strained use of fossil fuels for escalating energy demands. Human expansion
drives into extinction more and more animal species and endangers all life on earth.With the advent and availability of weapons of mass destruction, religious Hypertheism has engendered virulent religious conflicts around the globe.
extremism tied to political ambitions threatens the very well-being of humanity. More and more people seem to be ready and willing to die for some religious cause, even ones that mistakenly think they are not religious. Hypertheism is the product of abdicating human freedom in face of a per-
ceived divine will, the word of God in some particular religious form. It dominates the religious agenda today by identifying a religious community with divine authority, forgetting human interpretation. The problem of hypertheism is its self-righteous idolatry in thinking that its own particular
image or idea of God is identical to divine reality itself and that its parti-cular community ism, in religious or secular form, we see competitive tribalism, with each religion embracing exclusionism in hostility to the others.of believers constitutes the one true religion. In hyperthe-
dled between these outlooks that pit religionists against secular humanists. Theological humanism envisions the possibility for a flourishing future for humanity in its interconnectedness with all other life forms.Current thought about religion and the human future is too readily strad-
imagination, we have isolated resources for responding to our troubled times. From the humanistic traditions, both classical and modern, theological humanism summons the love of freedom, human equality, the cultivation of Exploring the metaphors and images of the theological and humanistic
community and character, and also learning, languages, history, and letters at all levels of study. These values are embedded in the humanistic images of the theatre, garden and school which we have used to unfold the meaning of theological humanism. The humanistic traditions have been specifically con-
cerned with cultivating the abilities both to produce and to understand meanings in language, along with the reflective art of thinking systematically within dynamic historical contexts of culture. In order for humanity to have a future, the love of liberal learning must once again flourish.
and purposes for human pursuits, and not merely the means for achieving unreflected ends. With advances in technology and expansions in global economy, patterns of thought and evaluation increasingly become calculative Humanistic education promotes thinking about noble and worthy ends