Religion and the Human Future: An Essay on Theological Humanism

Ours is a time when cultures and religions creatively interact but also often collide, and human power increasingly endangers forms of life even while great technological advances enable us to better relieve suffering and want. It is a time of great uncertainty, unrest, but also creativity, which reveals a profound quest to understand the meaning and responsibility of our shared and yet divided humanity. It is this religious quest for humanity that authors David E. Klemm and William Schweiker address in this Blackwell Manifesto.

The authors outline a vision called theological humanism based on the idea that neither God's will nor human flourishing alone provide an adequate measure and orientation for human life. The task of human life is responsibility for the integrity of life, the measure of human action. Yet more than that, the idea of theological humanism articulates a profound and ancient insight too often lost in the current debate between theologians and humanists - that human beings are mixed creatures striving for wholeness and integrity.

This powerful manifesto sets forth a dynamic and robust vision of human life beyond the divisions that haunt the humanities, social sciences, theology, and religious studies. It announces a way of thinking about and living out the quest for our humanity and thus the task of religion and the human future.