Religious humanism: Encyclopedia - Religious humanism

Religious humanism

Religious humanism, is an integration of religious rituals with humanistic philosophy that centers on human needs, interests, and abilities. The two basic approaches to religious humanism are from a humanist viewpoint that incorporates religious ritual, and from a revealed religious tradition with a humanist influence.

Religious humanism - Humanist traditions

As originally conceived in the early 20th century, humanism rejected revealed knowledge, theism-based morality and the supernatural. Yet many of the founders of the humanist philosophical movement envisioned it as a religion, with all of the functions, rituals, and moral guidance that revealed religions traditionally provided. In the late 20th century the humanist movement came into conflict with conservative Christian groups in the United States and "Secular Humanism" became the most visible element of organized humanism.

Religious humanism - Spiritual Humanism

Spiritual Humanism claims to be a return to the original concept of humanism as fulfilling all of the functions of revealed religion. The Spiritual Humanism movement is a response to the perceived failure of the original humanist organizations to recruit new membership and address these spiritual needs. Many people feel the need for a religion to help guide them through life's challenges and difficult moral decisions. Recognizing how religious rituals, methods, and communication can impact human behavior, Spiritual Humanism is an attempt to fuse traditional religious behaviors onto the foundation of scientific humanist inquiry.

Religious humanism - Revealed religious traditions

In the past, humanist versions of major religions, such as Christian humanism, Humanistic Judaism and Islamic humanism played an important role in world history. Currently, however, humanism is dominated almost exclusively by secular humanism. This has given rise to a newer version of humanist religions which are similar in philosophy to secular humanism. Secular humanists and revealed religious humanists primarily differ in their definition of religion and their positions on supernatural beliefs. They can also diverge in practice since religious humanists endorse religious ceremonies, rituals, and rites.

Another approach, Christian Existential Humanism, related to the work of the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard, features a humanist perspective grounded in Christian religious belief; where humanity is something to be celebrated, but not as a replacement for the divine.

See also

• Unitarian Universalism
• Alevi
• Corliss Lamont
• Fellowship of Reason

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Religious humanism", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki