| Confessions of a Humanist Christian 83,000 words Confessions of a Humanist Christian attempts to fuse into a single stream the humanist strivings of Athens and the Christian truths of Jerusalem. The book is wide-ranging in its reference (Plato, Dante, Erasmus, Milton, Browning, etc.) and should hold its primary appeal to Evangelical Christians (of whatever denomination) who are fans of the style and approach of C. S. Lewis and who seek (in the wake of The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind) a more sophisticated evangelicalism that will speak to both heart and mind, and who desire (in the wake of The Openness of God) a freer spirit of inquiry that is unafraid to re-envision traditional notions of the nature of God, of Christian education, and of the spiritual walk of the believer. CHAPTER-BY-CHAPTER SYNOPSIS OF CONFESSIONS OF A HUMANIST CHRISTIAN WHERE ATHENS AND JERUSALEM MEET defines the terms humanism and Christianity and demonstrates that they are not opposed to one another. THE DIVORCE OF HUMANISM AND CHRISTIANITY surveys and analyzes the various "isms" that result when either the spiritual nature of Christ (and by extension the spiritual nature of man) is downplayed or rejected (stoicism, deism, materialism) or the physical nature of Christ (and by extension the physical nature of man) is downplayed or rejected (pantheism, gnosticism, and legalism). TO READ THIS CHAPTER TOGETHER WITH THE CHAPTER ABOVE, PLEASE CLICK HERE. NEITHER T NOR U (through an intensive and somewhat polemical critique of Luther's Bondage of the Will) presents the Calvinist doctrines of total depravity and unconditional election as being finally incompatible with any true understanding of humanism. THE PATH THAT RISES offers a brief but detailed analysis of all those aspects and teachings of Plato that are compatible with the beliefs of the humanist Christian. FROM PLATO TO CHRIST completes the above analysis by offering various means and perspectives by which Plato's doctrines can not only be reconciled with those of Christ but can actually increase and empower the spiritual life of the humanist Christian. ORIGEN (through a close reading of his On First Principles) presents (and defends) this oft-misunderstood Church Father as an early champion of humanist Christianity who succeeded in balancing a firm belief in the essential doctrines of Christ (what Lewis calls "mere Christianity") with a free and contagious spirit of inquiry. ERASMUS (through a close reading of his Handbook of the Militant Christian) takes up the cause of another oft-misunderstood humanist Christian whose life-long desire it was to fuse into one his love of the Classics and his devotion to Christ. NOTES TOWARD A HUMANIST CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY (through a careful consideration of the educative principles laid forth in Newman's The Idea of the University and Milton's "Areopagitica") seeks to envision the true nature, ultimate goals, and proper attitude toward truth that should define and guide the humanist Christian university. THE LAND OF GOSHEN carries the above argument onto a practical and personal level as I present and analyze my own university (Houston Baptist University) as an example of an institution of higher learning that has sought (and succeeded in great part) in paying equal homage to Christ and to the Western Tradition. ON REACHING THE END OF THE BOOK is a brief meditation on that internal eschatological drive which impels us all to seek meaning and purpose in the books we read. WHAT CHRISTIANITY IS NOT (Appendix A) offers a humanist Christian approach to apologetics that distinguishes the precise nature and beliefs of true Christianity from those of culture, religion, philosophy, and mythology. A READING LIST FOR THE HUMANIST CHRISTIAN (Appendix B) offers a carefully selected reading list of key humanist Christian texts that should prove challenging and inspiring not only to the humanist Christian but to the non-humanist Christian and the non-Christian humanist who are willing to put to the test their long-cherished views of man, God, and the universe. FOR A COPY OF THIS READING LIST, CLICK HERE. | ||