Elden's World, The Need for Humanistsby William Edelen
Perhaps the most ludicrous and asinine charge made by those ranting against humanists is that they are godless. A list of brilliant humanists, who were also deeply religious and spiritual persons in the most profound sense, would be endless: Plato, Aristotle, Erasmus, Montaigne, Sir Thomas More, Paracelsus, Nicholas Cusanus (one of the greatest thinkers of the 15th century), Sir Francis Bacon, Goethe, Albert Schweitzer and practically all of our major founding fathers, from Thomas Jefferson to Abraham Lincoln. One of the most beautiful books in my library is entitled Humanist Meditations by the Hebrew scholar Emil Weitzner. His entire book creates an atmosphere of holiness. In his introduction, he writes of "That mystery which keeps our biological and moral existence together, that impenetrable darkness in which God the mystery dwells. It is a paradox that as knowledge increases, the mystery deepens. For all that we are, for all that we know, for life unfolding in its wonder and beauty, its promise and its hope, let us in the sight of the mystery give thanks." The motivation of the humanistic movement in the 14th century was to produce a fully cultivated human being. Educational programs were upgraded and refined. The inner needs of the religious life, combined with a classical education became the ideal. Children studied the Latin classics; they read history, ethics, poetry and drama; they learned to compose in both Latin and Greek. Music and singing were required. The sciences were mandatory: geometry, astronomy and natural history. With this curriculum, designed for mental development, were rigorous courses in physical education. Training in riding and swimming and other outdoor activities was compulsory. Along with these subjects was one overall, pervasive theme. It was the cultivation of manner that one needed to become a fully civilized human being. Would to God that we could revive this humanistic concept, of what it means to be a fully developed person, in today's educational programs. Erasmus (1466-1536) was the greatest classical scholar of his day. Carl Jung thought Erasmus one of the brightest lights of civilization. Erasmus spent his adult life attempting to clean out the superstitions of the religion of his day and reforming the corrupt church. With his sharpest needles he continually punctured the ignorance of the clergy and poured scorn on what he called "the vulgar and superstitious versions of Christianity being taught." Erasmus and the other humanists of this period revealed and exposed the 16th-century church as a monstrous and sick aberration. Their brilliance and eloquence, combined with vast scholarship, spread far and wide and was a tremendous impetus for religious enlightenment. Our Founding Fathers, as humanists with a profound sense of the mystery, carried on within this tradition and in like manner attacked, in scathing words, the superstitions, doctrines and bigotry of the Christian clergy and church in their own day, hoping to let in some much-needed fresh air. Humanists-schooled in the humanities and other liberal arts-combining the needs of the spiritual life with a classical education-whether theist, deist, Christian, Buddhist, Taoist or Hebrew-could very well be the bright hope of this nation.
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