[Dialogue] Spong on Secular Humanism

[KroegerD@aol.com]

Allen Claxton from Florida writes: 
"In your answer to the humanist  question, you seem to suggest by your final 
quotes that secular humanism is  "descended" from Christianity. I don't know 
if that indeed is what you intended.  It seems to me, however, that secular, 
humanist values might parallel those of  other religions. Might the parallels 
with Jesus' teaching that you correctly  cite instead be a coincidence?" 
Dear Allen,
Thanks for your letter  and give my regards to your Unitarian Universalist 
Fellowship in Central  Florida. 
Because secular humanism is a western phenomenon not an eastern  one, it 
seems obvious to me that it has grown out of a western value system that  has been 
significantly shaped by the Judeo-Christian tradition. I see  Christianity at 
its heart as deeply humanistic. The core doctrine of the  Christian faith 
suggests that God is revealed through a human life. Jesus states  his purpose in 
John's gospel to be that of giving life abundantly. So I see  secular humanism 
as the residual remains of Christianity once the supernatural  elements have 
been removed. 
The relationship between the two is, however,  even more complex than that. 
The next issue we have to face is that of  determining whether the supernatural 
understanding of God is essential to  Christianity. I do not think it is. 
Furthermore, I do not think that the  mythological framework in which Jesus has 
been traditionally understood, as  God's divine invasion of this world to 
rescue the fallen, is either original or  accurate, to say nothing about its being 
an adequate way to understand the  meaning of the Christ. Indeed, I think that 
understanding of Jesus is exactly  backwards. It was because Jesus was fully 
human that people experienced in him  all that God means. It will take the 
Christian Church at least another century  or two to overcome the way we have 
distorted God and to rid ourselves of the  primitive images with which we have 
surrounded Jesus; but it will happen and,  when it does, Christianity will 
experience a burst of new life. 
-- John  Shelby Spong

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://wedgeblade.net/pipermail/dialogue_wedgeblade.net/attachments/20060510/29c2327d/attachment.htm