Christian humanism is a movement that developed in Renaissance Europe, with the rediscovery of classical Greek and Latin works that had been thought lost. Humanism sought to return to "original sources". It argued that the height of western civilization had been in the classical period, and with the fall of Rome, most knowledge had been lost, and that much of the knowledge that remained had been corrupted by false traditions. It was the responsibility of the scholar, therefore, to rediscover the original Greek and Latin texts, and separate real wisdom from false interpretation.
This movement had a profound effect on society, and, with its emphasis on classical texts and the rejection of much of the religious tradition that developed in the Middle Ages, helped lead to the Protestant Reformation, and, in fact, some of the new humanist Bibles, such as Erasmus's Greek New Testament, were important sources for both Martin Luther's translation of the Bible and the King James Version of the Bible.
Some of the modern roots of Christian Humanism come from the Social Gospel movement.[1][2][3]
Categories: [Christian Movements] [Philosophy] [Renaissance]