Re-Envisioning Christian Humanism

question in this discussion, identified most clearly by Albert Schweitzer, was
the question of anthropology, namely, what does it mean to be human?
According to Schweitzer, what we mean by civilization depends on our
response to this question. To be civilized

means approximately this: that in spite of the conditions of modern civilization,

we remain human. It is only taking thought for everything which belongs to true

human nature that can preserve us, amid the conditions of the most advanced

external civilization, from going astray from civilization itself. It is only if the

longing to become again truly human is kindled in the man of today, that he will

be able tofind his way out of the confusion in which, blinded by the conceit at his

knowledge and pride in his powers, he is at present wandering.^3

What sets apart Emil Brunner’s contribution to this debate is his explicit
reference to Christian humanism as the transformative influence essential
to the reinvigoration of Western post-war culture. For Brunner, Christian
humanism stands and falls with the incarnation, and he spends much time
delineating the distinct differences between ancient Greco-Roman and Hebraic
anthropologies. He goes on to explain how the Christian idea of God’s be-
coming human deepened the biblical teaching that human beings are made in
God’s image, thereby introducing new conceptions of personhood and dignity
into the ancient world. For this reason, Brunner is convinced that the Christian
faith‘is the only sure basis for, and inexhaustible fountain of, a true humanism’.^4
As our opening citation indicates, however, Brunner challenged his Gifford
audience to regard Christian humanism as an‘unfinished project’in a post-
Christian world, and as an outstanding‘debt which the Christian Church owes
to the world to this day’.^5 Brunner’s challenge is one we want to take up in this
and the remaining chapters because his statement raises two important con-
siderations for re-envisioning Christian humanism. Thefirst is to establish the
cultural context of‘this day’to shape a responsive and responsible Christian
humanism. The second is not to forget such a humanism’s dynamic, inter-
pretive quality. Christian humanism is, by nature, an open-ended, unfinished
project. We will briefly look at each consideration in turn.
Brunner himself helps us establish the cultural context for re-envisioning
Christian humanism, because he already experienced the cultural transition to
a secular, post-Christian society and its consequences for moral reasoning that
still characterize our time. Brunner and others already sensed what Alasdair
MacIntyre observed decades later inAfter Virtue: modern secular society has
lost‘a context of practical beliefs and of supporting habits of thought, feeling,

(^3) Albert Schweitzer,The Philosophy of Civilization(Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books, 1987),
334.
(^4) Brunner,Christianity and Civilization, 104.
(^5) Brunner,Christianity and Civilization, 88.
138 Jens Zimmermann