Debates about religion and the human future rage around the world. From the highest seats of government to local mosques, churches, synagogues, and temples, the power of religion to shape, invigorate, but also destroy human social life is recognized. Belief in the triumph of the modern secular age,
a world free of the passions of religion, has proved wrong and wrongheaded. At “the dawn of the twenty-first century, religion is strutting onto the world stage as a powerful though volatile actor, playing in an ever-changing range of roles – a development that was inconceivable to most Westerners a
generation ago.” religion. The question is what of religious practice contribute to a humane future or will it condemn soci-eties to unending violence, ignorance, and want? If history is any indication,^1 The question is not whether there will be a future for kind of future is to come. Will the resurgence
the religions will play both roles, forging and also forsaking the human future. Religion, like secularity, is a many-sided thing.that the religions are only forces of evil, as some ardent secularists hold, Simple answers to complex challenges never suffice. It is no use to insist 2
nor that, in fact, they are really good and only fanatics have hijacked them for destructive purposes. The religions bring insight, care, and redemption but often they breed ignorance, foster conflict, and satisfy the base long-ings of the human spirit. The religions as practiced around the world
are challenge is to decide how they can and ought to be thereby to contribute to a viable future for human and non-human life on this planet. This book takes up the interpretive and practical chal-essentially ambiguous social and cultural forces. Given that fact, the interpreted and lived
lenge by outlining a novel vision of the religious and moral life. We call it theological humanism.Introduction
9781405155267_4_000.indd 19781405155267_4_000.indd 1© 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 7:30:02 PM5/2/2008 7:30:02 PM