The Shape of Theological Humanism
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He attacked the possibility of using biblical revelation to provide a solid basis for theology and so endangered the vision of God as heavenly deity. In his Treatise on the Free Investigation of the CanonJohann Semler was an early proponent of historical criticism of the Bible. (1771), Semler read the Bible as
a collection of documents in the history of religions, not as straightforward divine revelation.of words within reconstructed historical contexts, Semler identified authors of the biblical books and showed how different books belonged to different (^13) By analyzing the meanings, significations, and references
social contexts and periods of history.was the breakdown of any literal identification of biblical texts with the word of God. Once the distinction is rigorously drawn between the author and God, no historical reasons can re-identify the biblical text and the word^14 The result of his historical criticism
of God. In what sense, then, could the Bible be considered as “revelation”?judgment of the human mind. The human mind possesses an original, universal revelation, which consists in the ability to determine whether Semler, in the style of critique, made revelation dependent on the free
something purporting to be the word of God is in fact what it claims to be. For Semler, the criteria are these: (1) whether the material content of the purported revelation corresponds to the rational, moral idea of God, and (2) whether the language of revelation has the capacity to transform ethically
the one who receives it.a higher level of ethical existence than he or she would otherwise have achieved. Semler retained an openness to a religious presence – an original revelation of goodness – which both respects historical differences among^15 True revelation, he reasoned, elevates its hearer to
presentations of possible revelation and provides a critical norm for free judgment. This universal revelation of goodness, however, trumps any particular religious revelation to which it must submit as its norm.Following Semler, radical critical thought exploded. Ludwig Feuerbach
and later Sigmund Freud, among others, developed the notion that the idea/image of God as heavenly deity is a projection of human consciousness. They argued that because theological thinking cannot refer to supernatural things, since such things exceed human knowing, theology must be a coded lan-
guage that is really about something else. For Feuerbach, religious conscious-ness is normal self-consciousness alienated from itself and projected in objective form onto the infinite background of human reason, will, and affection. “Theology is anthropology: in other words, the object of religion,
which in Greek we call other than the essence of man; man’s God is nothing other than the deified essence of man.”Religion can be reduced to “the dream of the human mind.” To awaken (^16) What religion views as divine is actually human nature. theos and in our language God, expresses nothing