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Christian humanism is the belief that human freedom and individualism are compatible with the practice of Christianity. It is a philosophical union of Christian and humanist principles.^[1]

Contents 1 Origins 1.1 In the Renaissance 2 Selected Humanist Teachings of Jesus 2.1 The Second Great Commandment 2.2 Unto the Least 3 Literary criticism 4 Prominent Christian humanists 5 Notes 6 See also 7 External links

Christian humanism may have begun as early as the 2nd century, with the writings of Justin Martyr. While far from radical, Justin suggested a value in the achievements of Classical culture in his Apology^[2] Petrarch (1304-1374) is also considered a father of Christian humanism. The traditional teaching that humans are made in the image of God, or in Latin the Imago Dei, also supports individual worth and dignity.

Christian humanism saw an explosion in the Renaissance, emanating from an increased faith in the capabilities of Man, married with a still-firm devotion to Christianity. Mere Humanism might value earthly existence as something worthy in itself, whereas Christian humanism would value such existence, so long as it were combined with the Christian faith. One of the first texts regarding Christian humanism was Giovanni Pico della Mirandola's Oration on the Dignity of Man, in which he stressed that Men had the free will to travel up and down a moral scale, with God and angels being at the top, and Satan being at the bottom. The country of Pico's nativity, Italy, leaned heavily toward Civic humanism, while the firmer Christian principles took effect in places other than Italy, during what is now called the Northern Renaissance. Italian universities and academia stressed Classical mythology and writings as a source of knowledge, whereas universities in the Holy Roman Empire, France, etc. were still deeply Christian and taught extensively of Church fathers.

"You shall love thy neighbor as thyself"
- Matthew 22:39, Mark 12:31, Luke 10:27 (also Leviticus 19:18)

Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand

"Come, ye blessed of my Father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat:
I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink:
I was a stranger, and ye took me in:
Naked, and ye clothed me:
I was sick, and ye visited me:
I was in prison, and ye came unto me."

Then shall the righteous answer him, saying,
"Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee?
or thirsty, and gave thee drink?
When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in?
or naked, and clothed thee?
Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?

And the King shall answer and say unto them,

"Verily I say unto you,
Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren,
ye have done it unto me."
- Matthew 25:34-40

Christian humanism is first of all a movement for widened learning that emerged out of the Renaissance and was brought by devoted Christians to the study of the philological sources of the Greek New Testament. This project was undertaken at the time of the Reformation in the work of Erasmus of Rotterdam (who remained a Catholic), Martin Luther (who was an Augustinian priest and led the Reformation, translating the Scriptures into his native German), and John Calvin (who was a student of law and theology at the Sorbonne where he became acquainted with the Reformation, and began studying Scripture in the original languages, eventually writing a text-based commentary upon the entire Christian Old Testament and New Testament except the Book of Revelation). John Calvin was the most prominent of the many figures associated with Reformed Churches that proliferated in Switzerland, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and portions of Germany, Hungary, Lithuania, and Poland. Each of the candidates for ordained ministry in these churches had to study the Christian Old Testament in Hebrew and the New in Greek in order to qualify. This continued the tradition of Christian humanism.

The broader tradition extends the zone of usage of the term "Christian humanism" and continues to be used widely to describe the vocations of Christians such as Dorothy Sayers, Charles Williams, C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, Flannery O'Connor, Henri-Irénée Marrou.

• John Calvin
• Don Cupitt
• T. S. Eliot
• Erasmus
• Christopher Fry
• Søren Kierkegaard
• Jacques Maritain
• Thomas More
• Blaise Pascal

• Christianity
• Humanism
• Personalism
• Religious humanism

• No Christian humanism? Big mistake., Online Catholics, by Peter Fleming. (Accessed 02 August, 2006)

• Christian Humanism, a website maintained by John P. Bequette, Ph.D., Historical Theology