Reimagining Christian Humanism

Reimagining Christian Humanism

At stake today are not simply discrete questions of public policy, but more fundamental and even existential questions concerning the nature and meaning of the human. Across multiple domains—including racial identity and historical injustice, religious pluralism and democratic life, artificial intelligence and technological mediation, financial systems and economic valuation, and humanity’s relationship to the nonhuman world amid ecological crisis—the meaning, dignity, and purposes of human life are being contested and reconfigured. These developments cannot be understood in isolation. Together, they constitute interrelated pressures that unsettle inherited accounts of personhood and agency and compel renewed reflection on the meaning and purpose of what it means to be human.

The Reimagining Christian Humanism workstream responds to this moment by retrieving and critically reworking the resources of Christian humanism in sustained dialogue with other religious and philosophical traditions, as well as with contemporary critical social theory. Rather than offering a purely abstract account of the human, however, the workstream situates theological reflection within concrete historical and contemporary conditions, attending to the material, social, political, spiritual, ecological, and technological forces through which human lives are formed and ordered. In this way, it seeks to develop intellectually rigorous and publicly accessible frameworks for understanding the human that can inform public policy, shape institutional practice, and sustain forms of common life capable of upholding human dignity amid profound social and technological transformation.

This workstream is developed through a range of integrated activities, including conferences, research projects, events, and forms of public scholarship.

We welcome enquiries about postgraduate study and research in moral and political theology in this area.

A Conference Series

The workstream is organised around a series of five interdisciplinary academic conferences designed to advance a renewed account of Christian humanism through theological, interreligious, and philosophical inquiry. Each conference addresses a critical domain in which contemporary understandings of the human are being contested and reshaped, examining how differing accounts of human nature, dignity, agency, and purpose inform responses to some of the most pressing social, political, technological, ecological, and economic questions of our time. Collectively, the conferences generate significant scholarly publications and public-facing resources, foster sustained intellectual and institutional collaboration, and provide a meeting place for scholars, church and civic leaders, and those working in the media or developing public policy to engage in these shared questions.

• The first conference, Christian Humanism in the Black Atlantic, examined humanism both as a tradition and as one formed through the histories and legacies of slavery and colonialism, with particular attention to questions of identity, freedom, and human dignity.

• The second, Reimagining Humanism, approached humanism as a site of interreligious encounter, exploring religious pluralism, democratic life, and the possibilities of shared civic practice across enduring differences and divisions.

• The third conference will focus on artificial intelligence and emerging technologies, examining how technological systems are reshaping human agency and the material, social, and spiritual conditions of personhood.

• The fourth will examine finance and impact investing, investigating how systems of money, debt, investment, and economic valuation both embody and shape conceptions of human worth, agency, work, and flourishing.

• The fifth and final conference will address relations between human and nonhuman life, exploring ecological and biophilic accounts of humanism and reconsidering the place of humanity within the wider natural world.

Publications and Collaborations

The papers arising from each conference are published as a special issue of a leading academic journal, extending the intellectual contribution of the convenings and establishing a body of scholarship around the workstream’s central themes. The conferences also generate a range of public-facing resources, including lectures and podcasts, intended to bring these conversations into wider ecclesial, civic, and institutional contexts.

Building off the conferences the Reimagining Christian Humanism workstream is developing a number of other writing projects and institutional collaborations. The former include The Oxford Handbook of Christian Humanism, edited by Luke Bretherton in collaboration with Jens Zimmerman. The latter includes working closely with Comment magazine which has made Christian humanism the guiding framework and the editorial focus of its work.  Other outputs are listed below.

For an overview of what is meant by Christian Humanism and how and why it speaks to the present moment see the following interview with Luke Bretherton by New York Times columnist, David Brooks, for Comment Magazine on Christian humanism.