There are, of course, a number of “new humanisms” ranging from political to, and probably most significantly, literary movements.
But here I’m holding up the New Humanism associated with Greg Epstein, Harvard University’s Humanist chaplain.
I’m profoundly enamored of the humanist movement. I think the humanist strains of Chinese religion and what has flourished within Unitarian Universalism are rich and complex expressions of human yearning for depth within the world within which we find ourselves.
Western humanism shares with Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism an approach to matters of meaning without particular reference to a divine organizing principle.
Although Western humanism’s major difference with these religions is that they simply are not particularly concerned with matters of divinity, while humanism in the West has tended to feel an obligation to address the question of God head on. And often with some bitterness. Reasonable enough, of course, considering the attacks of theistic religion upon atheism…
Nonetheless, this has, to my mind, been Western humanism’s great weakness. Those who might best be called “hard” atheists believe that idea of God and the manipulation belief in God opens people to, is the source of all, or at least a very, very large part of human ills. For some, too many, I find, this becomes the sole note in the humanist songbook. And western humanism in most of its expressions tends to have that hard atheist stance.
Greg Epstein’s approach is an attempt to shift humanism away from the rhetoric of that hard atheism and toward all those other aspects of a fully engaged life in this world – and in particular those concerns that are part of the religious or spiritual quest. This New Humanism is about meaning and depth in life without reference to a creator/sustainer/destroyer divinity.
Good stuff, I think. Now Greg didn’t invent this. But as Harvard’s Humanist chaplain he is perhaps the best known, certainly he gets the most press. And he has used that access to good effect.
Now the project has expanded to include an online Magazine, the New Humanism. They’ve gotten off to a very good start. I’m a long time admirer of their editor Rick Heller. And, I was tickled that their initial issue would feature a reflection on what meditation might mean within the humanist context…
I recommend a visit.
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