Religion and the Human Future An Essay on Theological Humanism

It is a cruelly hazardous enterprise, this becoming a whole, becoming a form, of crystal-lization of the soul ... Evil cannot be done with the whole soul; good can only be done with the whole soul. Martin Buber 1

This book began by exploring the clash between religious and humanistic outloeven deadly distortions within the humanistic and religious legacies of Western civilization, namely, overhumanization and hypertheism. We intend to change oks on life. Theological humanism, we said, aims to address powerful and

the terms of debate. With some sense of the scope and challenge of this essay, we isolated features of classical humanism, theology and its critics, and also Christian humanism. This provides us with a range of metaphors which will be put to constructive work in this chapter and others. In terms of Christian humanism,

we clarified its internal logic for the use and transformation of humanistic ideas of perfection, the good, and the human capacity for a relation to the divine.background forces that have helped to shape theological humanism as well Metaphors and logical analysis have been used in order to articulate the

as to isolate and to identify challenges to contemporary thought that spark the imagination and called forth reflection. In order to bring this first step of this essay to an end, it is necessary to clarify the concept that holds together theological humanism as an outlook and orientation for religion and the

human future: the integrity of life.The Cruel Hazard of Life^2

The idea of the integrity of life signifies the truth of Martin Buber’s words, cited above. The human labor of forming one’s life and the life of a

On the Integrity of Life^5

9781405155267_4_005.indd 739781405155267_4_005.indd 73© Religion and the Human Future: An Essay on Theological Humanism2008 David E. Klemm and William Schweiker^. ISBN: 978-1-405^ -15526-7David E. Klemm and William Schweiker 5/2/2008 4:08:14 PM5/2/2008 4:08:14 PM