The Shape of Theological Humanism
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participation/alienation/empathy) that mark human wretchedness provoke a longing for level of human good. Human beings can respond to the act on the forms of obligation nestled in the goods of life. Individuals or even integrity in human life. This longing gives rise to yet another call of conscience and
communities so dedicated find their lives integrated through a commitment to respect and enhance the integration of goods in others’ lives and in their own life. This is, for the theological humanist, the claim of conscience, and it means that at its deepest level the integrity of life is a spiritual reality. Spiritual
integrity, the integrity of dedicated life, is a specific attitude and project in relation to the other goods of life. It is the crystallization of the soul, as Martin Buber called it, and, therefore, both the highest human good and also the distinct vulnerability, risk, and freedom of human existence.
project of respecting and enhancing the integrity of all life. The motivation for this dedication arises in and through other human motivations; it is the desire for truthful life. What that means can be formulated and directed Spiritual integrity demands truthfulness of self and community to the
through a specific dictate of conscience, an imperative of responsibility. Now, responsibility is about human power and freedom as well as the capacity to make choices; without the power to act and the freedom of choice and to accept consequences, one cannot be rightly held responsible. This makes the
idea of responsibility extremely important in the age of technology and global dynamics. Theological humanism seeks then to meet the challenges of the various endangerments to life that define our global age. We can briefly unfold the meaning of this imperative of responsibility and its relation to
conscience. The Imperative of Responsibility
The imperative of responsibility at the heart of theological humanism is this: in all actions and relations respect and enhance the integrity of life before Goddivide our comments into parts of the imperative and then show what it means for treatment of human and non-human life. First, the moral life is. We can
about actions and relations and specifically what we ought to respect and enhance in and through actions and relations. The ordering is important. One must respect self and others first and foremost. ing the worth and dignity of others; it is to extend the scope of moral consid-Respect is a way of acknowledg-
eration to include all. This is rooted for Christians and many others in God’s appreciation of creation (“and he saw that it was good”) and also Christ’s love-command: love neighbor as self and even enemy as we were first loved. Yet responsibility cannot end with respect or even securing the needs of