Humanism, An Augustinian Mind, & Christ the Truth
by Erin Doom
Feast of the Precious Cross that Appeared over Jerusalem in A.D. 351
Anno Domini 2020, May 7
1. Essays et al: “Christianity and the Humanist Tradition – Part I”
I recently read a brilliant lecture by Rowan Williams on “Liturgical Humanism.” I’ll share that with you tomorrow. For today, I want to provide an introduction to the term “humanism” and its relationship to Christianity, as described by Christopher Dawson over fifty years ago. It’s a fairly lengthy essay so I’ve divided it into two parts. The second part will also be included in tomorrow’s Weekend Synaxis.
Here’s the heart of the first part, in which Dawson provides a working definition of “humanism”:
Humanism was a real historical movement, but it was never a philosophy or a religion. It belongs to the sphere of education, not to that of theology or metaphysics. No doubt it involved certain moral values, but so does any educational tradition. Therefore it is wiser not to define humanism in terms of philosophical theories or even of moral doctrines, but to limit ourselves to the proposition that humanism is a tradition of culture and founded on the study of humane letters.
But that is only 82 of the 2,153 words in the first part. Please read the whole thing here.
2. Books & Culture: Sanctifying the World
by Bradley Birzer
Today and tomorrow, I’ll also be peddling books on humanism / Christian humanism. Today’s is a biography of Christopher Dawson: Sanctifying the World: The Augustinian Life and Mind of Christopher Dawson. Here’s a snippet from the Eighth Day Books review, which describes Dawson as a humanist:
A “Christian humanist,” he shared his contemporary Tolkien’s love of dreams and the imagination, and his hatred of fascism, communism, and ideology. He took an Augustinian view of western civilization that found God’s purpose visible in history, and pursued with indefatigable energy the mission of restoring Christendom amidst the failures of modernity.
Read the full review here. And get a copy at Eighth Day Books.
3. Bible & Fathers: “Christ the ‘Truth’: Fulfillment of Philosophical & Poetical ‘truths’”
I couldn’t not give you some Augustine today, after peddling Dawson’s Augustinian mind and life. And be prepared for more Augustine than normal over the next several months. The New Moot, an EDI reading-thinking-writing group, is reading through The City of God. I’m supplementing that reading with Augustine’s letters and homilies, as well as a wonderful (and highly recommended) out-of-print book arranged by Erich Przywara, An Augustine Synthesis. So here’s an excerpt from one of St Augustine’s letters in today’s Patristic Word:
In this Christ there came to men, at the time which He knew to be most fitting and which He had determined before the world began, the teaching and the help necessary to the obtaining of eternal salvation. Teaching came by Him that those truths which to men’s advantage had been spoken before that time, not only by the prophets (all whose words were true) but also by philosophers and even poets and authors in all branches of letters (for who will deny that they mixed much truth with what was false?), presented by His authority in the flesh, might be confirmed as true for the sake of those who could not perceive and distinguish them in the light of essential Truth, which Truth was, even before He took upon Himself human nature, present to all who were capable of receiving truth.
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