In our rapidly changing world, we face a rising tide of threats to our humanity. From artificial intelligence and the erosion of free speech to bioengineering and euthanasia, the humanistic values we cherish, like intrinsic human rights and the dignity of all persons, are increasingly at risk. We are in danger of losing our humanity without even realizing it.
Theologian Jens Zimmermann shows that “Christian” and “humanist” not only belong together, but that true humanism flows directly from the gospel and is impossible without Christianity. He also explores how humanistic values rooted in the incarnation of Jesus Christ can help us reclaim our humanity across all aspects of life.
In this book, Zimmermann:
defines Christian humanism as the greater Christian tradition’s interpretation of the gospel as God’s promise that we will achieve our full humanity in Christ;
provides an inviting introduction to the ideas and history of the Christian humanist tradition and why it matters today;
argues that the incarnation of Christ is central to understanding what it means to be human, offering an alternative to secular humanism; and
demonstrates how Christian humanism can address the challenges in different areas of society, like art, technology, politics, and more.
Perfect for those seeking a fresh way to engage the challenges of our day, this book demonstrates that our identity is found not in secular philosophies, but in Christ's revolutionary act of the Incarnation. Christian humanism can help us recover the vision of what it means to be and become fully human in Christ, more important now than ever.
About the Author:
Jens Zimmermann (PhD, University of British Columbia; PhD, Johannes Gutenberg University) is the J. I. Packer Chair of Theology at Regent College in Vancouver and has published widely in philosophy and theology. His books include Incarnational Humanism (IVP Academic, 2012), Hermeneutics: A Very Short Introduction(Oxford, 2015), Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Christian Humanism (Oxford, 2019), Human Flourishing in a Technological World (Oxford, 2023), and the coedited Oxford Handbook of Theological Anthropology (forthcoming).
As a philosophical theologian, Zimmermann’s main intellectual interests are philosophical anthropology (who we are) and epistemology (how we know). He has pursued these two central questions across a broad range of interests that include theological anthropology, patristic and modern theology, hermeneutics (theological and philosophical), European literature, Martin Heidegger, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Hans Urs von Balthasar.