Religious humanism ( English Religious humanism , also liberal religious humanism ) is the integration of humanistic ethical philosophy with religious, but not theistic rituals and social activities, which are based on human needs, interests and abilities. Those who call themselves religious humanists differ from secular humanists mainly in that they consider the humanistic life position as their religion and organize using the congregational model. Religious humanism is a classic example of non-theistic religion .
Religious humanists in the 21st century are usually organized under the auspices of ethical culture or ethical humanism. At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, the British movement of ethical culture for a short time became very active, but by the 1960s it had largely abandoned its “religious” attributes, having established humanism not only as a religious identity, but as a useful label for describing the rational and non-religious attitudes toward morality and ethics. Ethical culture and religious humanism groups, first formed in the United States from former Unitarian ministers who, not believing in God, sought to create a secular religion, inspired by the ideas of the French philosopher Auguste Comte .
History
Proponents of liberal religious humanism deny the existence of a supernatural and afterlife, viewing their views as an expression of “sincere aspiration and spiritual experience”, inspiring to follow “higher moral ideals”. In fact, they are proposing to replace religion with universal human ethics , free from any theological , political and ideological sanctions. [one] .
The origins of modern religious humanism (from the mid-1910s) were a number of priests of the American Unitarian Church .
The key figures here were Rev. Mary Safford and Curtis W. Reese of the Unitarian Church in Des Moines , Iowa , as well as Rev. John H. Dietrich of unitary church in Minneapolis ( Minnesota ), who considered it possible to launch a campaign to democratize religious institutions under the banner of religious humanism. [2]
In one of his sermons, Curtis W. Reese stated: “The theocratic view of the world is autocratic. The humanistic view is democratic ... The humanistic or democratic view of the world order consists in the fact that this world is the world of man, and it depends on a person in many ways what he will look like ... A revolution in the field of religion, consisting in the transition from theocracy to humanism, from autocracy to democracy, has matured over time ... The democratic religion takes the form of "wholeness" ... According to the democratic religion, the main goal of man is to promote human well-being here and now b " [2] .
Subsequently, Reese became a well-known representative of religious humanism in the United States, and in 1949-50. headed the American Humanist Association .
Program Documents
The first program document of religious humanism is considered the First Humanist Manifesto ( Eng. A Humanist Manifesto (Humanist Manifesto I) ) (1933), the main idea of which was the need to create a new non-traditional humanistic religion that focuses exclusively on worldly values. [one]
The main authors of the manifesto were the philosopher Roy Wood Sellars , a member of the First Humanist Society of New York, and the Unitarian priest Raymond B. Bragg (Raymond B. Bragg).
The manifesto was published in one of the issues of the New Humanist magazine with 34 signatures, among which were many leaders of Unitarian and universalist societies, such as Edwin G. Wilson.
The Manifesto emphasized that the development of human society, new scientific concepts and achievements require a revision of attitudes towards religion: “The current era has raised enormous doubts in traditional religions, and the fact that any religion that claims to become unifying and driving is no less obvious. by the power of modernity, it must meet exactly the current needs. The creation of such a religion is the most important necessity of our time ” [1] .
Humanism was thus defined as a kind of religious movement designed to transcend and replace previous religions based on "supernatural revelations." The Manifesto proposed a new belief system based on 15 theses. In particular:
- affirmed the idea of the uncreated universe,
- recognized the evolution of the natural and social worlds without supernatural outside interference,
- the version of the social roots of religion and culture was recognized,
- the traditional dualism of soul and body was rejected, in return for which an organic point of view on life was proposed;
- it was argued that the new religion should formulate its hopes and goals in the light of the scientific spirit and scientific methodology;
- the traditional distinction between the sacred and the secular was rejected, for nothing human is alien to religion [1] .
In 1973 , the Second Humanist Manifesto ( English Humanist Manifesto II ) was published by the philosopher Paul Kurtz and the Unitarian priest Edwin G. Wilson . Here, the authors recognized the possibility of the coexistence of various humanistic approaches - both atheistic (associated with scientific materialism) and liberal-religious (denying traditional religions).
According to the periodization of the development of the modern humanistic movement, proposed by Yuri Cherny in his work “Modern Humanism”, the separation of secular (secular) humanism as an independent ideological movement, its final demarcation with religious humanism began in the 1980s. and continues to the present [2] .
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 Black Yu. Yu. Modern humanism. Analytical review. Part 2. Archived on November 5, 2008.
- ↑ 1 2 3 Black Yu. Yu. Modern humanism. Analytical review. Part 1. Archived on April 8, 2009.