saeculumpreserved by God until Christ’s return) are literally unthinkable
without their Christian humanistic roots. Perhaps few others have so passion-
ately argued for the Christian inspiration of Western cultures and of liberal
democracy as has the Catholic philosopher Jacques Maritain (1882–1973),
who loved to quote his teacher Henri Bergson’s statement that insofar as it
is based on the fundamental equality of every human being,‘democracy is
evangelical in essence’.^24 On this cultural heritage, even non-Christians often
agree, as indicated by the judgement of atheist historian, philosopher, and
statesman Benedetto Croce (1866–1952), who admits that‘in our moral life
and thought we feel ourselves literally the children of Christianity’.^25
THE CONTINUING RELEVANCE
OF CHRISTIAN HUMANISMGranted that Christian humanism plays a foundational role in the formation
of Western cultures, we still have to address the question why one ought to
reflect on this legacynowin the twenty-first century. It is no coincidence that
the Christian roots of Western cultures have historically been affirmed when
dehumanizing forces appeared on the stage of Western history. Interest in the
idea of Christian humanism arose particularly during and after World War II,
when many argued that human moral failure on such a grand scale required a
recovery of the Judeo-Christian anthropology that had shaped and shored up
humane values in Western civilizations.^26 Croce (the atheist) and Maritain(^24) Henri Bergson,The Two Swords of Morality and Religion, 243; quoted in Jacques Maritain,
Christianity and Democracy; and, The Rights of Man and Natural Law, trans. Doris C. Anson
(San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press, 2011), 36. Maritain cites Bergson after offering his own
passionate summary of Christianity’s spirit:‘To keep faith in the forward march of humanity
despite all the temptations to despair of man that are furnished by history, and particularly
contemporary history; to have faith in the dignity of the person and of common humanity, in
human rights and in justice—that is, in essentially spiritual values; to have, not in formulasbut in
reality, the sense and respect for the dignity of the people, which is a spiritual dignity and is
revealed to whoever knows how to love it; to sustain and revive the sense of equality without
sinking into a leveling equalitarianism; to respect authority, knowing that its wielders are only
men, like those they rule, and derive their trust from the consent of the will of the people whose
vicars or representatives they are; to believe in the sanctity of law and in the efficacious virtue—
efficacious at long range—of political justice in the face of the scandalous triumphs of falsehood
and violence; to have faith in liberty and in fraternity, an heroical inspiration and heroical belief
are needed which fortify and vivify reason, and which none other than Jesus of Nazareth brought
forth into the world’(Christianity and Democracy, 36).
(^25) Benedetto Croce,My Philosophy and Other Essays on the Moral and Political Problems of
Our Time(London: Allen & Unwin, 1949), 46.
(^26) For the argument that Nazism was fundamentally due to a change in anthropological
values, see Helmut Thielicke,Being Human—Becoming Human: An Essay in Christian Anthro-
pology(Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1984).
Introduction 7