Rooted in Christian traditions of moral and political theology and practice, the Centre not only examines current ideas about human flourishing and their outworking in public life, but also reframes the issues and asks different questions in pursuit of wise and imaginative responses to the complex crises and existential questions facing humanity. To this end, the Centre develops interdisciplinary research, critical conversations, institutional collaborations, and public engagements that foster more just, generous, and democratic forms of common life.
A key focus of the Centre’s work going forward is to examine historical and contemporary articulations of Christian humanist thought and practice and how these form a bridge to and point of exchange with multiple other religious and philosophical humanist traditions, democratic social practices, and forms of economic solidarity around the world. Alongside this constructive focus, the Centre maps and analyses antidemocratic and authoritarian movements and forms of political economy, particularly those that draw on Christianity to deny the intrinsic worth of every human because they have the ‘wrong’ identity or ideological commitment and that refuse the possibilities of and undermine the conditions for building a common life amid disagreement and across lines of difference.
Beyond addressing the current crisis of democracy, Christian humanist frameworks can also make a vital contribution to a broader dialogue of wisdoms about what it means to be human when the concept of humanity itself is in question even as the need for it grows more acute. The ability to edit human DNA, the capacity to merge humans and machines at a cellular level, and artificial intelligence that shares characteristics of human consciousness lead some to ask whether there will emerge different kinds of humans or even post-humans. Conversely, in biocentric frameworks and some critical responses to anthropogenic climate change, humanity is seen as merely a knot in a broader assemblage of life, and it is the whole assemblage, not humanity, that is the centre of value. If on the one hand, there are moves towards the dissolution of humanity as a thinkable moral and political entity, there is, on the other hand, an ever-greater need for a conception of humanity and affirmation of the intrinsic worth of each person as made in the image of God.
The Center is part of the Faculty of Theology & Religion at the University of Oxford. It was established in 2011 with an endowment from Al McDonald (1928-2019), an American businessman and philanthropist whose career including being the White House Staff Director under President Jimmy Carter, worldwide CEO of McKinsey’s, a faculty member of Harvard Business School, and founded the Avenir Group, a private investment company. Mr. McDonald devoted his later decades to questions of faith and Christian philanthropy. The Centre remains grateful for his foresight and generosity.
