On the Integrity of Life
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draws together the metaphoric clusters of theology charted before. Like the heavenly deity, there is a demand and claim on conscience. The responsible person or community beholds actions and relation in the light of the integ-rity of life. The reality and presence of that integrity exceeds and infuses finite
life with dignity and worth. And yet, if the ideas of God and Man form the center of theology and humanism, respectively, then the integrity of life is the fount and form of theological humanism. This norm of responsibility for the integrity of life articulates the structure of actual lived experience, other-
wise it is a dead abstraction. Yet it enables us to understand and work against forces of overhumanization and hypertheism. This norm is intrinsic to a right conception of divine as well as to human life.
Notice that we have been able to gather together within the idea of the integrity of life the diverse range of goods found in classical humanistic The Human Aim and Norm
images of human existence, as well as normative commitments to autonomy, respect for others, and social solidarity that find wide acceptance among neohumanists. To this we have added a range of goods in the formulation of plans of action. The question now is how, if at all, the integrity of life will
give to us the means to recast the set of ideas that defined the logic of Christian humanism so that we can show its meaning. Further, we need to clarify how the idea of the integrity of life provides the means for the transformation of classical humanism and theological as well as humanistic
Christian humanism sufficient to meet the challenges of overhumanization and hypertheism.One idea was about the human capacity for a relation to the divine. Another Recall that the logic of Christian humanism held together several ideas.
idea had to do with a rule for proper thinking about “God,” what we called the Anselmic principle. The third idea was a specific way of conceiving the highest good, namely, the union of virtue and happiness, or, in Christian terms, holiness and happiness. Finally, the whole set was itself an idea about
human existence, namely, finite creatures created good but changeable. This bundle of ideas enables Christian humanists to overcome the opposition between biblical revelation and the forms of philosophic truth indebted to the Greek and Roman heritage of the West. It provided a discourse for
reflecting on the reality of the “third man,” as we called it before, and so to practice a distinctive way of life. Insofar as that was the case, Christian thinkers used and transformed basic images of human existence found in non-Christian